Inari is the Japanese fox spirit. It is worshipped in Shinto Buddhism for many things, but particularly for the success of the rice harvest, used for food and also to make sake.
The main Inari shrine
in Japan is at Fushimi, a short train ride south of Kyoto. It has 4 kilometres
of trails up a wooded hillside lined with thousands of beautiful orange arches
called torii that lead to dozens of
individual fox statues, each one regarded as a messenger of the Inari.
A visit to the Inari
Fushimi complex was one of the highlights of a holiday we took in Japan about a
decade ago, and I hope to see it again in the first week of June. I’m excited
to be going to Kyoto as a delegate of the World Parkinson’s Congress being held
there over four days.
I haven’t been to the
WPC before (the last one was three years ago in Portland, Oregon) but I gather
it’s the leading global event for Parkinson’s research, therapies and
awareness. Apparently, everyone who’s anyone in the world of PD is going to be
there. On the registration form there were boxes to tick for researchers, students, therapists
and so on, but also PWPs and their families. So on the one hand there is the
opportunity to learn a lot of cutting-edge science, and on the other hand I
hope to meet some fellow bloggers.
Given the cost and the
long-haul flight I hadn’t been planning to go.
But then I was having
lunch with three of my PWP buddies yesterday and discovered that they were all
going, along with assorted spouses and family members. After a bit of persuasion,
I had a look at flight options and hotels, and suddenly it didn’t look so
expensive. Plus I need a “holiday” anyway after an exhausting few months at
work.
Japan seems a fitting
country to host the WPC. Perhaps thanks to the Inari, the Japanese are a very
healthy people and Japan is the country with the highest life expectancy in the
world. But with the large elderly population comes the curse of diseases like
Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
People pray to the
Inari for many things other than agriculture. When I visit Fushimi Inari this
time, I shall find a quiet shrine and say a little prayer of my own. To help us find a breakthrough in the search
for a cure. A cure for not just ten million people around the globe who
currently have Parkinson’s, but the many more to still to come.
