A case study of recording soundwalk of Fushimi Inari shrine in Kyoto, Japan using smartphone

Abstract

We present soundwalk of Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto, Japan from the main gate facing the Inari railway station to the summit. The soundwalk was captured from Samsung Galaxy S8 running NoiseExplorer: An app we have developed for Android and iOS. Fushimi Inari Shrine is the main shrine of the god Inari and sits at the base of a mountain also named Inari which is 233 meters above sea level. It also includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrines which span 4 kilometers and takes approximately two hours to walk up. This shrine is ranked as the number one most popular sightseeing destination among tourists visiting Japan. A salient feature of the shrine is the rows of nearly 10,000 torii gates in striking orange color, which is known as the Senbon torii. The soundscape at the main gate and the main shrine was found to be dominated by the sound of cicadas. However, midway along the torii gates along the path towards the summit, cicada sound subsides, and the soundscape is more representative of typical footpath on mountain paths. The Leq noise level of 59.6 dBA is well below the typical noise level of other Japanese tourist attractions.