Small Shinto Santuary dedicated to the Uga-no-Mitama divinity

Small Shinto Santuary dedicated to the Uga-no-Mitama divinity meaning "the spirit of the rice in storehouses" which is associated with food and agriculture and which is often represented in the form of the fox Inari the divinity of rice. Located in the city of Oji in the district of Kita north of Tokyo, this place once owned a tree Enoki Celtis sinensis Micocoulier which stood in the middle of the rice fields. On New Year's Eve, foxes from all over the region gathered here and there were signs of will-o'-the-wisps, which made the superstitious peasants count their numbers and used that to predict a good or bad harvest for next year. This scene is represented in the series of prints "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo" by Utagawa Hiroshige.