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Quick Answer
Oji Inari Shrine (王子稲荷神社) is a quiet, vermilion-painted shrine in Tokyo's northern Kita ward that has been honored, by tradition, as the Kanto Inari Soshi — the head shrine of all the Inari shrines of eastern Japan. Its real fame is its foxes: the Edo-era artist Hiroshige set one of his most magical prints here, picturing spirit foxes gathering by torchlight on New Year's Eve. That legend still lives in the Oji Fox Parade, held every December 31, when hundreds of people in fox masks walk by lantern light to the shrine. The grounds are free, a visit takes about 30 minutes, and it sits roughly five to eight minutes on foot from Oji Station. If you want a Tokyo shrine with a genuine story and almost no tour buses, this is one to bookmark.
Photo: Tak1701d, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The head shrine of the Kanto foxes
Most travelers meet Inari worship in Kyoto, at the endless vermilion gates of Fushimi Inari. But the cult of Inari — the kami of rice, harvest, and worldly prosperity, served by messenger foxes — has its eastern capital here, in a leafy pocket of Kita ward that few visitors ever reach.
By the shrine's own tradition, its standing dates back nearly a thousand years. The records say that during the Kohei era (the mid-eleventh century), the warrior-general Minamoto no Yoriyoshi, marching north to subdue the Oshu region, prayed deeply at this shrine and revered it as the Kanto Inari Soshi — the overseer of the Inari shrines of the Kanto plain. Whether or not the date is exact, the title stuck, and it tells you how seriously this small shrine was once taken.
Its fortunes rose again under the Tokugawa. When Ieyasu made Edo his capital, the shoguns adopted Oji Inari as a family prayer site, and the shrine grew into one of the most important Inari halls in the north of the city. The vermilion main hall you see today is traditionally said to have been rebuilt with the patronage of the eleventh shogun, Tokugawa Ienari, in the early nineteenth century. Stand in front of it on a weekday and the lacquered woodwork, the white foxes flanking the steps, and the hush of the trees make the centuries feel close.
The foxfire legend and Hiroshige's print
The reason Oji became the fox place is a single, beautiful piece of folklore.
The old story goes that on the last night of every year, the spirit foxes of the whole Kanto region would travel toward Oji to pay their New Year respects at the shrine. Before arriving, they gathered beneath a great hackberry tree — an enoki — on the approach, where they changed into formal court dress for the occasion. The tree became known as the Shozoku Enoki, the "Robing Hackberry," and country people swore that on New Year's Eve you could see the foxes' ghostly lights — kitsunebi, "foxfire" — flickering among its branches as the animals assembled.
The image was irresistible to Edo's artists. The great printmaker Utagawa Hiroshige immortalized it in New Year's Eve Foxfires at the Changing Tree, Oji, one of the plates of his celebrated 1850s series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. In it, foxes glow with pale flame beneath a starlit winter sky while the lights of the changing tree gather them in — a scene that fixed Oji in the popular imagination as a doorway between the human world and the world of spirits.
The original robing tree is gone; it was cut down in 1929 when the road through Oji was widened. But after the loss, locals planted a new hackberry on a nearby corner and built a small shrine beside it. This is Shozoku Inari Shrine, an auxiliary of Oji Inari, and it is the spot where the foxes were said to assemble. It is an easy stop on the walk between Oji Station and the main shrine, and a quiet place to picture Hiroshige's foxfires for yourself.
The New Year's Eve Fox Parade
The legend is not just a museum piece. In 1993, a group of local residents revived it as the Oji Fox Parade (Kitsune no Gyoretsu), and it has grown into one of Tokyo's most atmospheric ways to ring in the new year.
Late on December 31, participants gather at Shozoku Inari Shrine wearing kimono and either fox masks or painted fox faces. Around midnight, carrying paper lanterns whose warm glow stands in for the old foxfire, they set off in procession through the streets to Oji Inari Shrine, arriving in the first hours of the new year for a New Year's blessing. In a typical year, several hundred people walk, and far more line the route to watch.
Practical notes if you want to come: watching the parade is free, and you are welcome simply to stand along the streets near the shrines. Joining the procession itself usually requires a modest paid registration in advance, with children accompanied by an adult admitted free. Dress warmly — this is an outdoor, midnight, midwinter event — and expect crowds near the shrine itself, even though the wider neighborhood stays calm. It is a rare case of a genuine Tokyo folk tradition that feels intimate rather than staged.
Photo: Fred Cherrygarden, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What to look for on the grounds
Even on an ordinary day, Oji Inari rewards a slow walk.
Climb the steps to the main hall and you will find the white messenger foxes that mark every Inari shrine, here paired with the deep vermilion that Inari shrines favor. The principal deity is Uka-no-Mitama-no-Kami, the kami of grain and abundance, enshrined alongside two other creation deities — the kind of company that explains why merchants and households have prayed here for harvest, health, and good business for centuries.
Two features draw pilgrims in particular. One is the omoiishi, a "wishing stone" kept in the precinct: by tradition you make a wish and lift the stone, and if it feels lighter than you expected, your wish is favored; if heavier, you have more work ahead. The other is the oana-sama, an old fox hole — ana means "hole" — venerated as a dwelling place of the shrine's foxes and tucked into the slope behind the main hall. Access to the fox-hole area can be limited depending on the day, so check on arrival rather than assuming you can wander straight up to it.
Take your time with the side paths and the stone foxes; this is a shrine that reveals itself quietly. If you are new to shrine visits, our guide to Japanese shrine etiquette walks through the simple bow-and-rinse ritual so you can take part with confidence.
The February kite market: fire and fortune
Oji Inari's other great tradition arrives in late winter. On the hatsu-uma — the first "day of the horse" in February, the festival day of Inari shrines across Japan — and on the horse-days that follow, the shrine holds its fire-warding kite market (hi-fuse no takoichi).
The custom reaches back into the Edo period, a city of close-packed wooden houses where fire was the constant terror. Worshippers came to Oji Inari to buy a special fire-warding kite: because a kite climbs high and "rides the wind," it was believed to suppress the wind that spread fires, and so to protect a household from disaster. To this day the kites are sold as charms for protection from fire, for good health, and for prosperity in business. If your trip falls in early-to-mid February — the dates shift each year with the horse-days, and the market runs from late morning into the evening — it is a wonderfully local thing to stumble into, a working folk market rather than a tourist set-piece.
How to visit
Getting there. Oji Inari Shrine sits at 1-12-26 Kishi-machi, Kita City. From Oji Station (JR Keihin-Tohoku Line, North Exit; also the Tokyo Metro Namboku Line and the Toden Arakawa streetcar) it is a level walk of roughly five to eight minutes. Oji is only a few minutes from Ueno, so it slots easily onto a north-Tokyo day.
Hours and cost. Like most shrines, the grounds are free to enter, and there is no admission charge. The shrine office and amulet desk are generally open from around 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., though hours can shift around festivals and the New Year — if collecting a goshuin (shrine stamp) or an amulet matters to you, aim for the early afternoon rather than late in the day.
When to go. Any quiet weekday morning suits the shrine's character. For the big set-pieces, plan around the fox parade on December 31 or the February kite market, both described above. While you are in the area, Asukayama Park — one of Edo's original public cherry-blossom grounds — is a short walk away and pairs naturally with the shrine.
Oji Inari is the kind of place this site exists for: a shrine with a real story, woven into woodblock prints and midwinter processions, that has somehow stayed off the standard Tokyo circuit. If you have already done the headline sights and want a half-day among the city's quiet lanes, point yourself north. For more in this spirit, see our roundup of Tokyo temples and shrines the locals actually visit, or the hushed, garden-like grounds of Hie Shrine in Akasaka.
Plan it: Browse Tokyo shitamachi and old-town walking tours to pair with a north-Tokyo shrine day →
Stay nearby: Search Ueno hotels for an easy base near Oji and the north end of the city →
Frequently asked questions
Where is Oji Inari Shrine, and how do I get there? It is at 1-12-26 Kishi-machi in Kita City, northern Tokyo, about five to eight minutes on foot from Oji Station (JR Keihin-Tohoku Line, Tokyo Metro Namboku Line, and the Toden Arakawa streetcar). Oji is a short hop north of Ueno.
Is there an entrance fee? No. Like most Shinto shrines, the grounds are free to visit. You only pay if you choose to buy an amulet, a kite at the February market, or to register as a walker in the New Year's fox parade.
What is the Oji Fox Parade and when is it held? The Kitsune no Gyoretsu is a New Year's Eve procession, revived by local residents in 1993, in which people in fox masks and kimono walk by lantern light from Shozoku Inari Shrine to Oji Inari Shrine around midnight on December 31. Watching is free; walking in it usually requires advance registration.
Why is Oji Inari connected with foxes and Hiroshige? Foxes are the messengers of Inari, and folklore held that the foxes of the whole Kanto region gathered near Oji on New Year's Eve, their "foxfire" glowing under a hackberry tree. Utagawa Hiroshige captured the scene in New Year's Eve Foxfires at the Changing Tree, Oji, part of his series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.
Is it worth visiting outside the festivals? Yes. On an ordinary day it is calm and atmospheric, with the vermilion main hall, white stone foxes, the omoiishi wishing stone, and the nearby Shozoku Inari and Asukayama Park to round out a relaxed half-day in north Tokyo.
Final thoughts
Oji Inari Shrine is proof that Tokyo's best stories are not always downtown. Here is a shrine the shoguns prayed at, an artist's foxfire vision that still lights up every New Year's Eve, and a winter kite market that has quietly outlasted the city that needed it — all within a few minutes of a commuter station, and almost none of the crowds. Come for the legend, stay for the stillness, and let the foxes lead you down one of Japan's quiet lanes.
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you book through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you — it helps keep Tabilane independent. Office hours, festival and market dates, and parade-registration details are accurate to the best of our research as of 2026 but can change; please confirm with official sources before you travel. The cover image is Utagawa Hiroshige's 1857 woodblock print (public domain) and the in-text photographs are by the credited photographers, via Wikimedia Commons, used under the licenses noted beside each image.