In this guide
Toyokawa Inari × NAKED YORU MO-DE
Toyokawa Inari
Toyokawa Inari is the popular name of a Sōtō-sect Buddhist temple located in Toyokawa City, eastern Aichi Prefecture, Japan. The temple’s official name is Myōgon-ji (full name: Enpukuzan Toyokawa-kaku Myōgon-ji). Although a torii gate stands at the entrance and its principal image is popularly associated with Inari Ōkami—the Shinto kami of fertility, rice, agriculture, industry, and worldly success—the institution is a Buddhist temple and has no overt connection to Shinto.
Toyokawa Inari × NAKED YORU MO-DE
Shrines and temples have long served as symbolic places where people connect with one another. However, due to the impact of COVID-19, the number of worshippers across Japan has decreased by 1.26 million people this year.
Toyokawa Inari marks its 580th anniversary this year. Rather than letting the year pass without celebration, the temple enlisted the creative company NAKED, INC. Together, they created an innovative way to enjoy “night worship” through light installations designed to encourage social distancing and anti-virus measures.
The collaboration, titled “Toyokawa Inari × NAKED YORU MO-DE,” is scheduled to begin on 22 July 2021. Toyokawa Inari hopes the event will become a new normal even in a post-COVID world.
A New Style of Night Worship at Toyokawa Inari
This time, NAKED co-created a new style of night worship with Toyokawa Inari, incorporating planned COVID countermeasure art.
- “NAKED Tsukubai”: an art-form hand-sanitizer installation—now a familiar part of everyday life.
- “NAKED Distance Lantern”: designed to help visitors naturally maintain social distance.
- “FOX MASK”: can also be used as a splash-prevention measure.
“NAKED Tsukubai” is an original projection-mapping experience featuring Toyokawa’s specialty roses and spray mums that appear across the palm of your hand together with alcohol disinfectant.
“NAKED Distance Lantern” comes in two types:
- The white fox, guardian of “Dakini” enshrined at Toyokawa Inari
- The rose, a specialty of Toyokawa City, which boasts the highest production volume in Japan
There is also a version in which the shadow is illuminated on the ground.
The “FOX MASK” is a collaboration with Ichinen Kitsune, a handmade fox specialty shop in Toyokawa City. The mask glows with phosphorescence at night and helps prevent splashing.
In addition, YORU MO-DE features a special exhibition limited to July, as well as participatory night-only art that lets visitors feel a connection between worshippers and Toyokawa Inari through the light of lanterns and illuminations throughout the grounds. With support from local residents, there is also dedication lantern yagura art that provides light to Toyokawa Inari.
NAKED’s new-style night worship art can be enjoyed safely and securely, even during COVID, at shrines and temples and throughout the surrounding area, together with the people of each local community.
Event Information
- Address: 1 Toyokawa-cho, Toyokawa-shi, Aichi 442-8538
- Dates: From 22 July 2021, then on the 22nd of every month
- Time: 18:00–23:00
- Last admission: 22:00
Tickets
Advance purchase
- Adults (high school students and above): 800 yen
- Children (junior high school students and below): 500 yen
Same-day purchase
- Adults (high school students and above): 1,000 yen
- Children (junior high school students and below): 600 yen
Free for preschoolers.
Social Media
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Website: https://inari-toyokawa.com/
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yorumo_de/
