NARA -- Nara Park in this western Japan city is enjoying a tourist renaissance in the post-COVID and weak yen era. Even more than the area's famed temples, the free-roaming deer in the park are popular with tourists. Revered and protected, the fact remains that they are wild animals, and the deer-human relationship has not been without friction over the last century.

While the image is mainly of tourists feeding the gentle creatures rice crackers, there have been reports of recent violence by tourists and abuse at a facility where they are protected.

'They broke three pairs of glasses'

"The biggest change was when the deer began to be treated like pets," said Yasuhiro Nakanishi, former head of the Nara Prefectural Government's Nara Park management department. When he was a student at Todaijigakuen Senior High School within the grounds of the Todai-ji temple, he had some close encounters that made him sense how frightful wild animals can be.

Once he was drinking water in a baseball field when a fawn came by. Out of protective instinct, the mother deer ran up and knocked him down. "They broke three pairs of glasses in my student days. It was a common occurrence back then," Nakanishi recalled. There were also people seriously injured by deer lashing out during the seasonal "tsunokiri" autumn ceremony in which deer's antlers are cut off.

The prefectural government considers the deer "wild animals with no owners." They have long been revered as "shinroku," or holy deer, by places such as Kasugataisha Shrine and Kohfukuji Temple since ancient times, becoming also a source of reverence for local residents. The public of the then-town of Nara acted as their protectors.

Nakanishi said, "Of course, there were blessings by Kasugataisha, Kohfukuji and others, but the reality is they have been cherished as a part of nature worship."

Eating deer during WWII

In the early Meiji era (1868-1912), Kohfukuji lost its power as a result of the "haibutsu kishaku" anti-Buddhist movement, and with the arrival of a culture of meat-eating, 40 deer were reportedly culled for food. Citizens angered by this established a group dedicated to their protection, the "shinroku hogokai" (holy deer protection group). The prefectural government also implemented measures to protect the deer, whose numbers recovered throughout the Showa era (1926-1989).

The Rokuen protection facility was built in 1929, and the deer population reached 1,000 in 1942. Events such as tsunokiri and the "shikayose" winter deer gathering flourished, and it appeared that the deer's status had recovered. However, this was during World War II, and when food supplies ran low due to the deteriorating state of the war, the deer were once again hunted and eaten out of necessity. At one point, the number of animals decreased to 79. Nakanishi said that "unlike in the Meiji era, people probably had no choice but to eat them even if they did not want to."

Post-war, the status of the deer has been evolving from "shinroku" holiness to being seen as one of Nara's resources. In 1957, they were designated as a national Natural Monument, and by 1965 their number had recovered to around 900. Following additional efforts to eradicate wild dogs that had been attacking them, the deer now number some 1,300.

Troubles of coexistence, escalation to lawsuit

It isn't easy for humans and the wild animals to coexist. The biggest issue has been destruction of crops. In 1977 in particular, they caused around 10 million yen (some $63,240) worth of lost produce, leading farms in the area to sue Kasugataisha and others for damages in 1979. Whether the deer had owners became a point of contention. The residents claimed the shrine owned the deer, but the shrine retorted that, "We protect them, but do not raise them," citing the legend from Japan's Nara period (710-794) of a god riding there on a deer and the resulting view by some that the animals were godlike.

The lawsuit was settled six years later. The Nara Deer Preservation Foundation paid the settlement money, and a zone for the animals to live was established. There are now separate zones for the deer to be protected and where they may be captured or hunted under certain conditions. Those captured are protected at Rokuen.

In 2023, the facility was suspected of abusing the animals. Nakanishi noted, "They are wild animals, not pets. I want people to return to that foundational view."

How should the next century of deer-human interaction in Nara proceed? Nakanishi believes, "It is important to recognize that deer have their own way of life and maintain a certain distance from them. We should live with mutual respect in a relaxed manner, without getting overly familiar with them."

(Japanese original by Yasuhiro Tanabe, Nara Bureau)