Keihin Fushimi Inari Shrine: 108 Foxes and a Little Mount Fuji

The number 108 has a familiar religious association in Japan. In Buddhism, it represents the earthly desires and delusions that keep people tied to suffering—the reason temple bells are traditionally struck 108 times at New Year.

According to the shrine, the explanation is more cheerful: 100, a very large number, plus 8, a lucky one. The character for eight, 八, widens towards the bottom, like a fortune that keeps growing.

The number sounded solemn. The arithmetic was not.

Some foxes looked stern; others seemed almost amused. Painted eyes and sharply drawn brows gave even a motionless face something approaching an opinion.

The paint came later. A 2017 account reports that the foxes were carved over nearly ten years from 1964 and originally left the colour of the stone. According to the shrine, the paint was added to protect them from weathering, proved popular with visitors and had remained ever since.

There was enough variation to make the next fox worth looking for. Sometimes it was tucked into a crevice. Sometimes it was standing in plain sight, dressed rather better than its neighbours.

The shrine has also assembled some of that volcanic stone into a miniature Mount Fuji.

Its blue slopes rise to a white summit, with a small torii at the base. After the uneven rocks and restless poses of the foxes, the mountain is immediately recognisable: a neat, familiar silhouette, brought down to a size that fits beside a path.

The snow, at least, has been spared the uncertainty of the weather.

Worshippers can pay their respects to the sacred mountain here without travelling to Fuji itself. Some of the mountain has made the journey on their behalf.

Lake Biwa has a local representative too: Shōfuku Pond, modelled after the lake. Around its rocky edges, foxes sit, lean, recline and peer towards the water.