Fox in the Gateway - October 2022

Several people have asked me what the significance is of the large Shinto Gateway at the back of the stage on my Genesis Revisited Foxtrot shows.

Jo and I have always been intrigued by the Shinto gateways, particularly after a visit to the Inari Mountain shrine on the edge of Kyoto. We climbed through all these striking vermillion gateways for about two hours. It really felt like a pilgrimage as we ascended the mountainside surrounded by the beauty of nature. We also noticed fox statues often in candlelight in every shrine that we passed on the way. The fox is apparently the spiritual link to the natural world.

So, with the fox association and the sense of portals between worlds which songs from Foxtrot like 'Watcher of the Skies' and 'Supper's Ready' invoke, we realised that the Shinto gateway was a great image to have for this tour. The idea to do this came to us on our most recent visit to Japan, where we visited two more Shinto shrines, both times entering through those magical gateways.

Our thanks to Andrea Holmes for creating the image for this tour's gateway, which allows our imagination to ponder on the worlds beyond...