Oji Inari Shrine, No. 18 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

White puffy plum blossoms peeping up from behind the teahouses below indicate that it is early spring at Ōji Inari Shrine, the devotional site of Inari, the god of the harvest. Inari worship spread rapidly throughout the rural Kanto hinterland of Edo during the eighteenth century and later moved into the city itself. Because of its antiquity, Ōji Inari Shrine was considered the chief among all Kanto shrines to Inari. Each year in the early spring, farmers and city-dwellers alike gathered there to pray for a good year.