Saijō Inari

Saijō Inari, located in Kita Ward, Okayama City, Okayama Prefecture, is a Buddhist temple of the Nichiren sect officially named “Saijō Inariyama Myōkyō-ji.” Situated in the Takamatsu area, it is also known as “Takamatsu Inari.” The temple is famous for preserving the syncretic form of Shinto and Buddhism; although it is a Buddhist temple, it features a Shinto-style main hall (Reikōden) with a torii gate and shimenawa rope, blending architectural and ritual traditions from both religions. Saijō Inari is counted among Japan’s “Three Great Inari Shrines” alongside Fushimi Inari and Toyokawa Inari. During the first three days of the New Year, it attracts as many as 600,000 visitors, making it the most popular pilgrimage site in Okayama Prefecture.

Saijō Inari is the only temple in Okayama Prefecture that survived the Haibutsu Kishaku (anti-Buddhist) movement in the early Meiji era, allowing the Nichiren-sect style of Shinto-Buddhist syncretic worship to continue to the present day. After World War II, the temple briefly left the Nichiren sect in 1954, establishing the “Saijō Inari-kyō Headquarters Myōkyō-ji,” but officially returned to the Nichiren sect in 2009. As the birthplace of Saijō-son worship, it refers to itself as the “Head Temple of Saijō Inari.”

The temple’s principal deity is “Saijō-ikkyō-ō Daibosatsu” (Inari Daimyōjin), whose name refers to the Lotus Sutra (“Ikkyō” meaning the Lotus Sutra). The deity is depicted as a celestial maiden holding a sickle in her right hand, carrying a sheaf of rice on her left shoulder, and riding a white fox—features identical to Dakiniten, the Buddhist counterpart of the Inari god—symbolizing divine protection and agricultural abundance.