Guiding Todaiji temple with pictures! Why are there deer in Nara?

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Introduction of　Todaiji-temple

On the cross road in front of Todaiji temple, you can find rickshaw always. I suppose there were not so many of them, but lately I see them a lot.

Do you know why deer exist in Nara?

I’ll show you those kinds of trivia.

You can find approaches when you head to the South Gate and find many souvenir shops on your left-hand side. On the other side, there is a park called

“Ukigumoenchi” and where is visited by many tourists from various countries as they can meet many deer there.

Nara is famous as deer existing city. You can get biscuits for deer around the park and many tourists enjoy feeding. Please be careful if you have a plastic bag, because deer know something yummy inside the bag and some of them try to take it from you. It is better carrying a backpack to prevent from that kind of accidents.

How come deer gathered in Nara?

Deer is considered a divine messenger in Japan. Let me explain in detail.

～The divine of Kasuga-taisha Shrine came to Nara with riding on white deer from “Kashima Shrine” in Ibaraki prefecture about 1300 years ago.

I personally think this kind of legend is something like an urban legend. Because from Ibaraki prefecture to Nara is so far such as taking about 7hours by car so even riding a white deer it is pretty hard to come without a car. I’ve never seen a white deer before and is not so big enough for a person to ride also. Anyways, I think the divine came to Nara from above with riding deer.

There are many deer relaxing in front of souvenir shops. They seem to stay wherever want to be.

There is a Japanese pickles shop in front of the South Gate. Those pickles are famous, I can’t eat them though.

Here is the South Gate. If you look at it close, it looks a bit dirty. The structure of this gate is built of wood, some parts of gate are deteriorated. This gate was once constructed in Heian period but crashed due to big wind, therefore, it was newly constructed in Kamakura period. The height of the main 18 poles are about 21m and the height of the gate is about 25m.

There are two statues facing each other on the gate. It took about 70day to construct the gate and the wood of the gate was brought from Yamaguchi prefecture where is quite far from Nara.

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Why were wood from Yamaguchi prefecture chose to use?

There should have been so many trees around Nara. Well, maybe the god told the people there to use the wood from Yamaguchi??  ―the answer is NO! In Kamakura period, many buildings constructed in Nara period were dilapidated and re-construction was required, and many wood were used, but still more materials were needed. Then, the people lived in Kamakura period decided to bring wood from Yamaguchi prefecture.

In front of the stone sculpture of Vajradhara, there is a stone sculpture of lion, what I think it looks like E.T.

After crossing the South Gate, there is the Todaiji temple museum. If you want to visit both the museum of Daibutsuden and Todaiji temple museum, you can get a common coupon.

temple lodging

Todaiji Temple Guide Map

I visited pond of Todaiji called “Kagamiike” and the exhibition with famous a ship created by famous Chinese artist. You can visit it free, but if you want to visit inside Daibutsuden, you have to show the ticket which I mentioned.

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