Everyone photographs the first hundred gates. Keep climbing: past the viewpoint where the crowds turn back, the mountain becomes a forest of moss-covered altars, stone foxes and small shrines, and the path loops quietly over the top.
Fushimi Inari-taisha is the head shrine of Inari, god of rice and prosperity, and the whole of Mount Inari behind it is sacred ground, laced with paths under thousands of torii donated by businesses and families.
The famous Senbon-torii, the "thousand gates", start just behind the main halls. Most visitors climb as far as Yotsutsuji, a crossroads about halfway up with a view over southern Kyoto, and turn back. Beyond it the loop to the summit is quieter and stranger: clusters of miniature gates, fox statues holding keys and jewels in their mouths, and moss-covered stone altars called otsuka.
Instead of returning the same way, drop off the mountain on a forest path to Tōfuku-ji, a Zen temple famous for the finest maple valley in the city, and catch the train there. Start at dawn or at dusk with a torch, when the gates glow and the paths are almost empty. Tea houses on the way up sell inari sushi and udon with fried tofu, the fox's favourite food.
The summit loop runs one way round; signs and maps at each junction keep you right.
Enter through the great vermilion tower gate, past the fox guardians, to the main hall and the start of the Senbon-torii.
Two parallel tunnels of closely spaced gates climb to Okusha, the inner shrine, where a pair of "omokaru" stones test your wishes by their weight.
Tea houses and a broad view over southern Kyoto. Most people turn back here. Take the loop anticlockwise to the summit.
Moss-covered altars, candles and miniature torii crowd the top shrine at 233 metres. The loop returns past Mitsutsuji to Yotsutsuji.
From the lower slopes, follow signs for Tōfuku-ji along a quiet path through bamboo and woods, and finish at the temple's Tsūten-kyō bridge over the maple valley.
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JR Nara line from Kyoto station to Inari, two stops and about five minutes; or the Keihan line to Fushimi-Inari. Tōfuku-ji is one stop back on either line.
Before 8am or after 5pm the lower gates are calm. The paths are lit at night, but bring a torch for the forest descent.
It is a working shrine: keep to paths, do not climb on altars, and keep voices low at the upper shrines.
Kyoto practical notes →
Tengu country, cedar roots and a river hamlet.
The fire hill above Ginkaku-ji and the canal walk.
A pilgrim path to the monks' mountain.
Macaques, a view and the river trail.
Three mountain temples and the best maples.
Wikimedia Commons photographs are used under their licences; Pexels photographs under the Pexels licence.
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