Fushimi Inari Taisha "ORAL HEALTH"

alex

Jul 16, 2024 — 1 min read

Here's something I didn't expect to see at the Fushimi Inari Taisha:

The shrine has roundabouts 10,000 of these brilliant red-orange gates (torii), and as a mostly-Japanese-illiterate tourist it was easy to walk past a couple and assume everything is religious or historical. Lines of prayer, names of past emperors, or something. But then... ORAL HEALTH.

As it turns out, the inscriptions are from donations to the shrine, and each donation gets the donor name and date inscribed on a gate. Some donors happen to be businesses, like this ORAL HEALTH†. After learning this, I noticed the pattern at other shrines and temples, including ones that are a bit more off the beaten path.

(† Sure if I had maybe read a guide first I would have known this. What can I say, I like going in blind when possible :)

Another example in a less-traveled corner of Tofukuji

It's a pretty wholesome vibe with businesses giving back to the public good.

For a whole host of reasons we're not likely to see "UNCLE BOB'S AUTO" on the side of a church in America, but the closest we've got is sponsoring Little League games, probably?

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