Inari, Finland languages as their mother tongue. Ninety-seven inhabitants were native speakers of other languages. Only about 1%, 78 persons, were citizens of countries other than Finland in 2010. Inari is the largest municipality in Finland. Located in Lapland, it covers an area of , of which is water. With an area of , Lake Inari is the third largest lake in Finland, smaller than the country's second largest Lake Päijänne. Finland's largest National Park Lemmenjoki is partly located in Inari, as is the Urho Kekkonen National Park. Vast parts of the municipality are designated wilderness areas: Hammastunturi, Muotkatunturi, Paistunturi, Kaldoaivi, Vätsäri,
Inari Ōkami worship of Inari is known to have existed as of 711 AD, the official founding date of the shrine at Inari Mountain in Fushimi, Kyoto. Scholars such as Kazuo Higo believe worship was conducted for centuries before that date; they suggest that the Hata clan began the formal worship of Inari as an agriculture "kami" in the late fifth century. The name Inari does not appear in classical Japanese mythology. By the Heian period, Inari worship began to spread. In 823 AD, after Emperor Saga presented the Tō-ji temple to Kūkai, the founder of the Shingon Buddhist sect, the latter