Fushimi Inari temple or shrine: the difference, and why it matters

They belong to two different religions that have coexisted in Japan for well over a thousand years, frequently on the same hillside, and the visual differences are consistent enough to identify from the road.

Shinto shrines are marked by a torii gate. They house kami — a word usually translated as gods or spirits, though neither is quite right — and the guardians at the entrance are animals: foxes at Inari shrines, lion-dogs at most others. Shrines are usually free. You bow at the torii, rinse your hands at the water basin, and at the hall you throw a coin, bow twice, clap twice, bow once.

Buddhist temples are marked by a large roofed gate rather than a torii. They house images of the Buddha, they often have a pagoda, and the guardians are fierce human figures. Most of the famous ones in Kyoto charge admission and keep gate hours. You do not clap at a temple; you press your hands together quietly.

The names give it away too, once you know. -jinja, -taisha and -gu are shrines. -dera, -tera and -ji are temples. So Fushimi Inari Taisha is a shrine, Kiyomizu-dera is a temple, and Kinkakuji — the golden pavilion — is a temple as well.

Nothing is compulsory and nobody is watching, but there is a customary sequence and it takes about a minute.

Bow once at the torii before you pass under it. Walk to one side rather than down the exact centre of the path, which is traditionally left for the kami. At the water basin — temizuya — take the ladle in your right hand, rinse your left, swap and rinse your right, then pour a little into your cupped left hand to rinse your mouth. Do not drink from the ladle and do not spit into the basin.

At the offering hall, throw a coin into the box, bow twice, clap twice, hold your hands together for a moment, then bow once more. A five-yen coin is traditional because the word for five yen sounds like the word for a good relationship, which is exactly the kind of pun Japanese religious practice is full of.

Then walk up. Photography is fine everywhere on the mountain; the only places you will see signs against it are a few of the inner halls, and they are clearly marked.