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Nara is the capital city of Nara Prefecture, Japan, set in the northern Nara Basin about 40 km east of Osaka. From 710 to 784 it was the capital of Japan, called Heijō-kyō, and it is still one of the great centers of Japanese Buddhist art and architecture.
Eight temples, shrines and ruins of the old capital, with the Kasugayama Primeval Forest, form the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara. Most of the famous sights sit in or around Nara Park, a wide green area at the foot of the eastern hills, where about 1,200 sika deer roam freely among the temples and are protected as a natural treasure.
Visitors come for the Great Buddha of Tōdai-ji, the lantern-lined paths of Kasuga Taisha and the pagodas of Kōfuku-ji, all within walking distance of the stations. South of the park, the old merchant streets of Naramachi keep rows of wooden townhouses, while the ruins of the Heijō Palace and the temples of Yakushi-ji and Tōshōdai-ji lie to the west of the modern center.
Tōdai-ji is the great temple on the north side of Nara Park in Nara, founded under Emperor Shōmu and opened in 752. Its Great Buddha Hall, rebuilt in 1709, shelters a bronze Buddha about 15 meters high, and the Nandaimon gate is guarded by two giant wooden kings carved in 1203.
Nara Park opened in 1880 at the foot of the eastern hills in Nara, a wide green space that links the city's great temples and shrines. About 1,200 wild sika deer wander freely here as a protected natural treasure, and many have learned to bow to visitors who buy special deer crackers.
Kasuga Taisha is the Shinto shrine in the forest east of Nara Park in Nara, founded in 768 for the gods of the Fujiwara clan. About 3,000 stone and bronze lanterns line its paths and vermilion halls, and all are lit in the Mantōrō festivals held at the start of February and in mid-August.
Kōfuku-ji is a temple of the Fujiwara clan beside Nara Park in Nara, moved here in 710 when the capital was founded. Its five-story pagoda of 1426 is a symbol of the city, the Central Golden Hall was rebuilt in 2018, and its museum holds the famous three-faced statue of Ashura.
Naramachi is the old merchant quarter just south of Sarusawa Pond in Nara, laid out over the grounds of the ancient Gangō-ji temple. Its narrow lanes are lined with wooden townhouses of the Edo period and later, many now cafes, craft shops and small museums open to people walking through.
Gangō-ji is an ancient temple in the Naramachi quarter of Nara, moved here from Asuka in 718 as the successor to Asuka-dera, the first full Buddhist temple in Japan. Its main hall and Zen hall are National Treasures, and some roof tiles on them date back to the Asuka period.
Isuien Garden is a strolling garden near Tōdai-ji in Nara, made of a front garden laid out in 1673 and a rear garden from the Meiji era. Its ponds are fed by the Yoshiki River, and the rear garden borrows the views of Mount Wakakusa and the roofs of the Tōdai-ji gate beyond its walls.
Nara National Museum stands in Nara Park in Nara, one of the leading museums of Buddhist art in Japan, with its Meiji-era main building by Katayama Tōkuma now an Important Cultural Property. Each autumn it hosts the Shōsōin Exhibition of treasures kept by the emperors since the 8th century.
Heijō Palace Site is the open ground west of central Nara where the imperial palace of the capital stood from 710 to 784, now part of the World Heritage Site. The Suzaku Gate and the Former Imperial Audience Hall have been rebuilt here at full size, standing over wide fields of grass.
Yakushi-ji is a temple in the Nishinokyō area of western Nara, moved here from the older capital of Fujiwara-kyō and named for its Medicine Buddha. Its East Pagoda of 730 is one of the few buildings left from the Nara period, while the golden hall and West Pagoda are modern rebuilds.
Tōshōdai-ji is a temple in the Nishinokyō area of western Nara, founded in 759 by Ganjin, the Chinese monk who crossed the sea to Japan after five failed tries. Its Golden Hall, a single-story hall with a wide hipped roof, is seen as the classic model of the Nara-period temple style.
Mount Wakakusa is a 342-meter grassy hill rising just east of Nara Park in Nara, with sweeping views over the city and the Nara Basin from its top. On the fourth Saturday of each January its dead grass is set on fire in the Yamayaki festival, which opens with fireworks over the town.
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