CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

After visiting the temple at Todai-ji we jumped back on the coach and drove a few kilometres through the Deer Park to Kasuga-Taisha. Kasuga Grand Shrine (Kasuga-Taisha) is a Shinto shrine established in 768 AD and rebuilt several times over the centuries, it is the shrine of the Fujiwara family.  The path to Kasuga Shrine passes through Deer Park. In the park the deer are able to roam freely and are believed to be sacred messengers of the Shinto gods that inhabit the shrine and surrounding mountainous terrain.  The interior of the shrine is famous for its many bronze lanterns, as well as the many stone lanterns that lead up the shrine.  The 2000 lanterns are only lit twice a year for two festivals in February and August. The walk from the coach park was along the sloping path with trees and stone lanterns on both sides.  Sunlight was streaming through the tree tops and hitting some of the lanterns producing a wonderful scene with a lot of cont...

The approach to the temple at Todai-ji is through the Nara Park, which is home to around 1200 deer, which are free to roam as they please.  These deer are regarded as messengers of the gods and are sacred because the God “Takemikazuchi-no-mikoto” rode a deer.  The deer are considered as residents and it is a crime to harm one. The deer are fed offerings of shika senbei, special crackers that are sold by vendors for 150 yen.  The deer associate people with food and are not backwards in demanding some shika senbei.  Some have learnt to bow before receiving a cracker and there were plenty of bowing going on when we were walking up to the temple gate. The deer are not dangerous but will bite unintentionally so be warned. These shots were taken on the Fujifilm X-Pro2 fitted with the 16-55mm f2.8 or 10-24mm f4 lenses and also the X-T1 with the 50-140mm f2.8 For more information on Nara Park and the temple at Todai-ji CLICK HERE ...

On our second day in Kyoto we travelled by coach to Nara, a small town located about 60-minutes outside of Kyoto. Our first stop was the temple of  Tōdai-ji to see the world's largest bronze statue of Buddha. Tōdai-ji  (Eastern Great Temple), is a Buddhist temple complex, that was once one of the powerful Seven Great Temples.    Its Great Buddha Hall (Daibutsuden), houses the 49 foot  / 15m high bronze statue of the Buddha, known in Japanese simply as Daibutsu. The temple also serves as the Japanese headquarters of the Kegon school of Buddhism.  The temple is a listed UNESCO World Heritage Site as one of the "Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara", together with seven other sites including temples, shrines and places in the city of Nara.   The Great Buddha Hall (Daibutsuden) has been rebuilt twice after fire. The current building was finished in 1709, and although immense—57 metres (187 ft) long and 50 metres (160 ft) wide—it is ...