A parent and child were walking along the approach to the Mabashi Inari Shrine between houses

Passing through the Asagaya Pearl Center shopping street and continuing through a residential area, a vermilion-colored torii gate appears without warning between houses. It is the Mabashi Inari Jinja Shrine. What was once a shrine forest has been completely encroached upon by houses, and only the approach leading to the shrine barely remains as a sanctuary. In Tokyo, where many dwellings are so small that they were once derided by the Americans as "rabbit hutches," there is no mercy even for places where the gods are enthroned. The precincts of shrines located in densely populated residential areas are narrow.

On the narrow approach to the shrine, flanked on both sides by houses, there were several large torii gates as if to show off the shrine's presence. The red vermilion first torii was followed by the stone second and third torii, and finally, after passing through the Zuishin-mon gate, one came to the shrine pavilion. The approach to the shrine was long for a shrine in a residential area.

The second torii gate, with ascending and descending dragons engraved on it, is the most interesting part of the long and narrow approach. When I visit Chinese temples, I see many pillars decorated with carvings, but it is rare to see such pillars in Japanese shrines and temples. The carved pillars are cool. But I think, "The deity of this shrine is Ukanomitama, the god of grain." I am not sure what the relationship is with dragons.

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