Overview
The shrine was rebuilt every twenty years for most of its history, in the same way as Ise, so the vermilion buildings are old in design and young in timber. Behind it, Kasugayama has been a sacred forest closed to logging since 841, which makes it one of the oldest protected woodlands in the world and the reason primeval forest survives beside a city. The deer of Nara are considered the shrine’s messengers, which is why they were never hunted.
Highlights
Pay the inner precinct fee to walk the corridor where the bronze lanterns hang; a dark room there lights them all together and shows what the festival nights look like. The lantern festivals are in early February and mid-August. The path up from the shrine into Kasugayama primeval forest is open and almost empty.