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勧請 in Shinto terminology indicates a propagation process through which a kami, previously divided through a process called bunrei, is invited to another location and there re-enshrined.
The process of propagation, described by Shinto priests as akin to the lighting of a candle from another already lit, leaves the original kami intact in its original place and therefore does not alter any of its properties. The resultant wakemitama has all the qualities of the original and is therefore both living and permanent. The process is used often, for example during Matsuri (Shinto festivals) to animate temporary shrines called 神酒所 and their portable versions, called mikoshi.Sonoda (1975:12)
The transfer does not necessarily take place from a shinto shrine to another: the new location can be a privately owned object or a kamidana ("god-shelf", or altar) within an individual house. The case is recorded of Inari being re-enshrined in a kitsune holeThe fox is Inari's symbol. In fact, the first recorded Inari kanjō, in 842, involved the kami's transfer to Ono no Takamura's scepter. The kami was then transported to Mutsu no Kuni (Aomori) by its owner. Some years later, he returned to Kyoto, and Aomori's people asked him to leave the kami behind, which he did in what would become Takekoma Inari.
In 1194, Emperor Go-Toba decided that only Fushimi Inari Shrine could perform any of the parts of the Inari kanjō, however abuses were so rampant that the shrine started providing an authenticity certificate with each divided spirit. The process was briefly outlawed nationwide during the Meiji Era, but was reinstated by popular demand. Nowadays, most large Inari shrines will perform it for a fee, sometimes set by the shrine or left to the discretion of the worshiper. As of 1990, Fushimi Inari Shrine had performed it eighty thousand times for private citizens. The faithful are often given the option to give a personal name to their personal kami. At Toyokawa Inari, the worshiper can buy a statue and then participate in the ceremony, called kaigen, to animate it.
When one of Inari's forms is re-enshrined with a different name, it may also be worshiped for a specific function. All the new functions are thereafter assumed to be specialties of the kami, particularly in case of a great success in the re-enshrinement, even when those functions are very far from its original nature, as for instance fishing in Inari's case.
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