Nara

When I was writing about Jizō in my last post, I realized that I hadn’t mentioned my trip to Nara. I’ll fix that now.

Way back in December, I made a day trip to the city of Nara, which was the capital from 710 to 784, and also the first permanent capital in Japan. Previously, the court moved after each emperor’s death. The changing of this custom was part of the adoption of Chinese culture that was occurring at the time. Chinese writing, art, architecture, laws, and Buddhism were all actively taken up by the imperial court.

You may wonder: If Nara was supposed to be a permanent capital, then why did it not keep that status for long? What happened was that the Buddhist temples, which were imperially sponsored, had grown too powerful and were meddling in politics. It got so out of hand that the emperor finally decided to move the capital to distance the court from Nara’s temples. In 794, Kyoto was founded as the new capital. The imperial court remained in Kyoto until 1868, although after 1185, real power was held by the shoguns, who ruled from Kamakura, then Kyoto, and then Edo (which became Tokyo).

I’m getting sidetracked. Nara. Nara is directly east of Osaka and directly south of Kyoto, isolated from both cities by mountains. Today, it has a population of about 370,000, and is more relaxed and rural than its big neighbors. Nara’s temples declined significantly after the court left, but the most important ones have stuck around.

One of these is Kōfuku-ji. Kōfuku-ji is the clan temple of the Fujiwara family (the bad guys from the last post) and thus retained its splendor while other temples diminished. It has an impressive collection of status and other artifacts, with a museum displaying the works that aren’t in active use.

This is one of the many buildings in the complex.

To my utterly untrained eye, the design seems much more Chinese than later Japanese temples, which would make sense.

These are the statues of Jizō that I was reminded of. They are just downhill of the round hall.

You can see the little cups placed by the statues. A sad sight when you know what they signify.

Directly east of Kōfuku-ji is Nara Park, which contains an important shrine, the temple that houses Nara’s main attraction, and a national museum.

This building is currently the museum’s Buddhist art library.

It was built in 1902 and is a particularly handsome example of Western-influenced Japanese architecture from that period.

Getting back to the park itself, everywhere you go, you’ll encounter semi-tame deer like these.

The deer were once regarded as divine messengers and it was forbidden to harm them. They’re generally well behaved, but they’ll hound you relentlessly if you have food.

There were droves of the critters in front of Tōdai-ji, Nara’s most important temple.

They were probably attracted by the carts selling roasted chestnuts. There were no deer inside the gate, though. There could be a number of reasons for this, but one is tempted to think that the gate guardians are scaring them away.

These guys are the Buddhist equivalent of angels with flaming swords. Evil beware.

Beyond the intimidating guardians lies another gate and then the main hall, purportedly the largest wooden building in the world.

For all its size, this 1704 construction is only two-thirds as large as the 751 original. Inside is the famous Great Buddha statue.

The statue is 15 meters tall and weighs 500 metric tons. That’s a lot of bronze.  [Edit:  Some sources say 250 tons, but either number is only an estimate anyway.]

After Tōdai-ji, I wanted to visit Kasuga Shrine (the one I mentioned above). Alas, it was too late in the day, and the shrine was closed by the time I got there. I’ll have to go some other time.

But at least I happened to pass by this teahouse with a neat roof.

Tags: Daibutsu, Jizō, Nara, Sacred Deer, Temples