Carved mark ‘Kyoto, Inari Okami, 13th Year of Genroku (seventh month of 1704),auspicious day, Kagetaka and Royal Fujiwara offered. ’ Inari Ōkami, also called Ō-Inari, is the Japanese kami of foxes, fertility, rice, tea and sake, of agriculture and industry, of general prosperity and worldly success[citation needed], and one of the principal kami of Shinto. In earlier Japan, Inari was also the patron of swordsmiths and merchants. Represented as male, female, or androgynous, Inari is sometimes seen as a collective of three or five individual kami. Inari appears to have been worshipped since the founding of a shrine at Inari Mountain in 711 AD, although some scholars believe that worship started in the late 5th century.Provenance: Metok antique gallery, purchased in Tokyo, Japan 1980s