Takekoma Inari is the second-oldest shrine to the kami

Kami

is the Japanese word for the spirits, natural forces, or essence in the Shinto faith. Although the word is sometimes translated as "god" or "deity", some Shinto scholars argue that such a translation can cause a misunderstanding of the term...

Inari

Inari (mythology)

is the Japanese kami of fertility, rice, agriculture, foxes, industry and worldly success and one of the principal kami of Shinto. Represented as male, female, or androgynous, Inari is sometimes seen as a collective of three or five individual kami...

 in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. It is located in Iwanuma

Iwanuma, Miyagi

is a city located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.As of July 1, 2010, the city has an estimated population of 44,379 and a population density of 731 persons per km²...

 in Miyagi Prefecture

Miyagi Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku Region on Honshu island. The capital is Sendai.- History :Miyagi Prefecture was formerly part of the province of Mutsu. Mutsu Province, on northern Honshu, was one of the last provinces to be formed as land was taken from the indigenous Emishi, and became the...

. It was established in the ninth century, reputedly by Ono no Takamura

Ono no Takamura

also known as was an early Heian period scholar and poet.-Life:Takamura is a descendant of Ono no Imoko who served as Kenzuishi, and his father was Ono no Minemori. He is the grandfather of Ono no Michikaze, one of the...

.

Takekoma Inari annually celebrates a festival day. Inari's traditional festival day is the first horse day (the sixth day) of the second month of the lunisolar calendar

Lunisolar calendar

A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures whose date indicates both the moon phase and the time of the solar year. If the solar year is defined as a tropical year then a lunisolar calendar will give an indication of the season; if it is taken as a sidereal year then the calendar will...

; in recent years, the shrine has celebrated the event on a Sunday in February or early March. This festival is estimated to draw a quarter-million attendees. The shrine is also home to a horsemanship museum.

External links

• Map showing the location of Takekoma Inari in Miyagi Prefecture