This is relevant to my interest in Inari

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12777828/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12778021/

According to Wikipedia, Star Fox was inspired by a trip Miyamoto took to a shrine to this deity.

"He decided to use a fox as a main character since it reminded him of Fushimi Inari-taisha, about a fifteen-minute walk from the Nintendo corporate headquarters."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_F.....8video_game%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fushimi_Inari-taisha
It's probably no coincidence the shrine has so many torii it's like a tunnel, and the gameplay of the original game features bonus power-ups for passing through series of gates.

But who is Inari anyway?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inari_%28god%29

"Inari Ōkami (稲荷大神?, also Oinari) is the Japanese kami of foxes, of fertility, rice, tea and Sake, of agriculture and industry, of general prosperity and worldly success, and one of the principal kami of Shinto. "

meaning, it wouldn't be unusual in Japan for an industrial engineer-turned-video game designer to be making an offering at a Shrine to Inari

"More than one-third (32,000) of the Shinto shrines in Japan are dedicated to Inari. Modern corporations, such as cosmetic company Shiseido, continue to revere Inari as a patron kami, with shrines atop their corporate headquarters.[1]"

It REALLY wouldn't be unusual, it would be rather normal...

Implications:
Fox from Star Fox, is, in effect, another Avatar/Messenger of Inari. In a roundabout way, the games are tributes/virtual shrines to him, and to the fruits of technological success that are part of his sphere of influence. There are much deeper themes at work here than I ever knew...

For me, it's depressingly tantalizing.

If I lived over there, with Shrines to a patron deity of among other things, Engineers, there would be no conflict between my spiritual and scientific sides, between the pagan path and the career path. I could openly express both sides of myself.