ABSTRACT
By every shady wayside and in every ancient grove, on almost every hilltop and in the outskirts of every village, the reader may see, while travelling through the Hondo country, some little Shinto shrine, before which, or at either side of which, are images of seated foxes in stone. In the neighbourhood of the capital and in Tokyo itself - sometimes in the cemeteries - very beautiful idealised figures of foxes may be seen, elegant as greyhounds. They have long green or grey eyes of crystal quartz or some other diaphanous substance; and they create a strong impression as mythological conceptions. Inari is often worshipped as a healer; and still more frequently as a deity having power to give wealth. Therefore his foxes are sometimes represented holding keys in their mouths. And from being the deity who gives wealth, Inari has also become in some localities the special divinity of the joro class.
