Nara Park Temples and Shrines

Before Kyoto became the capital, Nara was the first to be established in the 8th century. With a new capital for the emperor, a number of Buddha temples were built including the largest known as Todaiji.

Nara Park

Nara Park is near the Kintetsu Nara station and pretty close to Osaka, so we did another day trip out. With a looming typhoon approaching, the weather dropped by a few degrees and made the walk in the park, a walk in the… We were instantly greeted with a lot of deer, and they have been coexisting in the park with humans for a very long time. They have no fear of us, in fact they expect to be fed. I came here as a child at M’s age, and my biggest memory was being bullied and chased by the deer. They are aggressive if you have any food, so we decided to skip buying the ‘shika-senbei’ (deer snacks) and watched others get assaulted instead. If you’re an adult it’s fine, but small children are easily knocked over! Trust me. I won’t mention the deer again, but they are all over the park and don’t seem to have any predators around. I guess hunting is not allowed here.

Kofukuji

The first temple area and pagoda we saw was Kofukuji. The temples look heavily influenced/borrowed from China and originally built in the 7th century. However, the temples were destroyed by fire and rebuilt in the 17th century. There are a few more temples/structures here, but we made haste towards the next more famous temple.

Todaiji

The scale and size of Todaiji is really hard to capture in photos. First you enter the massive Nandai Mon (great south gate). This houses 2 large guardian deities, which is easy to miss if you just walk through. The gate was rebuilt around 1200, pretty remarkable a wooden structure survives till present day.

Through that gate, you can now spot the next gate and the great temple behind it.

After entering the next gate, you enter a large courtyard and sitting there is the largest wooden temple in Japan (maybe the world?) named Todaiji. The current version was built about 300 years ago, however the original was even larger and there is a miniature model inside the temple.

Inside, filling the temple is the great bronze Buddha. It’s kind of mind boggling to think that it was made over 1000 years ago and stands about 50 feet tall. Apparently, an earthquake toppled it’s head in the 850s so it had to be reconstructed and made sturdier. WTF.

There are two smaller but still quite large bodhisattvas on either side of the Buddha and it’s pretty great to walk around all 3 statues. To added effect, there were some monks chanting that day too.

Just a mean looking 20 ft statue lurking in the corner.

Kasugataisha

The last part of our Nara Park stroll brought us to Kasugataisha for a nice contrast to the buddhist temples. While the Shinto shrine is much smaller in size, it is more vibrant and colorful and sits well among the many trees and stone lanterns. The history goes back as far as the temples, and is still actively used for rituals and ceremonies. We happened to witness a wedding ceremony taking place while we were there.

There are thousands of lanterns, which I believe are offered there via donations.

Architecture is pretty striking throughout.

And right outside, more lanterns made of stone. I wonder how many generations of moss has been growing on them.

Summary

The overcast and cooler day was a welcome reprieve from the summer heat we had been living through so far. Nara has many more temples/shrines outside the park, but this was a well-rounded first visit. We ate some Matcha flavored snacks on the way out, to close out a ‘wa’-ful (Japanese) day. The deer sit around with a jaded and calm existence, oblivious that their cousins across the world are in constant fear! But in Nara Park, this is their turf and the tourists are there to serve snacks.