AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Tucked behind a quiet residential street in southern Machida, Ume Inari Daimyojin is a small vermillion shrine that has served the agricultural prayers of this neighborhood for generations. Dedicated to the Inari deity of rice and harvests, it sits at the crest of a slope where old village roads once threaded through paddies and irrigation channels.↗↗
Today, with the rice fields long since swallowed by suburban housing, this tiny hokora (shrine pavilion) persists as a living focal point of local faith. It is freely open to visitors at any time and can be combined with a walk along the nearby Kamakura Highway trail and its collection of Edo-period stone monuments.↗↗
A Shrine of the Old Naruse Village
Ume Inari Daimyojin appears in historical registers as one of several small shrines and roadside chapels of the old village of Naruse (成瀬村), which encompassed today's Naruse, Minami-Naruse, Tsukushino, and surrounding neighborhoods in southwestern Machida. The shrine's name — Ume (plum) combined with Inari — suggests a site once marked by flowering plum trees, though the current setting is entirely residential.
