The fox is given an honored place at Fushimi Inari Shrine, one of Kyoto's oldest shrines. According to the Shinto religion, foxes are guardian deities and messengers of the god of rice, Inari. If you stroll through the shrine grounds you may almost feel that this belief is true, because of the many statues of foxes there.

Fushimi Inari is the central shrine for more than 30,000 Inari shrines throughout the country. Its mysterious beauty was described by the American architect Henry Plummer in this passage about the many torii gates (thresholds) leading to the main shrine:

Japan was strongly influenced by China in ancient times. For example, the Japanese adopted the old Chinese belief that birds and animals were messengers of the gods, or even gods themselves. One of these animals was the fox. Foxes prey on wild mice, and this keeps the mouse population down. Because they protect the rice growing in the fields, they ended up becoming gods!

Actually, foxes eat more than wild mice—their diet includes wild rabbits, small birds, fruit and other things, but their main source of food is wild mice. One study found that 69% of their diet was wild mice, 20% wild rabbits, 10% plant matter like fruit, and the remainder insects and miscellaneous items. Since they safeguard the rice crop, perhaps there is something divine about them after all!

Their hunting method is rather unusual. They walk through thick grass and listen for the sound of mice. Their ears are remarkably good at figuring out where their next meal is. The fox is a member of the dog family, but unlike a dog it does not depend on its sense of smell—it hunts more by sound. When its ears lead it to a mouse, it jumps up high. When it lands, it grabs the prey with its front paws, biting at the same time. If it misses, it jumps again, time after time, until it catches the mouse.

April is a busy time for foxes, because that is when they have young cubs to feed. They work overtime hunting wild mice, putting them in their stomach and regurgitating them for the cubs in the den. Around this time, almost their entire diet is wild mice. And yet, this is when the wild mouse population is at its lowest, after the cold winter. Because there are not many mice—they have just started their reproductive cycle—you would think that the foxes must be very good at hunting. Actually, they are not. They have to jump about 10 times on average to get one mouse. That shows how persistent these hunters are.

The strange thing is that, just when the wild mouse population expands in June and July, the foxes become much less successful as mouse hunters. Females give birth to many cubs—usually 4 to 6, but as many as 13. With all those cubs recently weaned and hungry, a greater food supply is needed. It is not easy keeping their little stomachs full, and the adult foxes, normally nocturnal, begin hunting in broad daylight. Their diminished success as hunters is certainly not for lack of trying.

So what is the problem? By early summer the grass has grown high and dense, and the assumption is that foxes cannot distinguish sounds as well because they make more noise as they move through the grass, and the wind makes slight rustling sounds.

Rice farmers of long ago would have known that foxes ate wild mice more than anything else. Little wonder, then, that these animal hunters were highly regarded, and ended up being honored as messengers of the god at Inari shrines.

Another interesting fact about foxes and Inari shrines—foxes are said to be very fond of abura-age (the skin of deep-fried tofu), so it is a common offering at Inari shrines. It would seem that the fried tofu skin is offered as a substitute for wild mice.