Five places to see deers in Japan 鹿に出会える５スポット

Deers in Japan are considered sacred animals, sometimes classified as national treasures... Here is a list of five places where you can admire them!

Kashima-Jingu

Let's begin at Kashima shrine (鹿島神宮, kashima-jingu) in Ibaraki prefecture. Its founding date is unknown, but the shrine is considered very old because it is mentioned in historical documents dating from before the eighth century. According to Japanese mythology, the great kami (goddess) Amaterasu sent a messenger in the form of a deer to Takemikazuchi, the kami of the region, to relay a message.

Since then, the shrine has been called Kashima shrine (deer island shrine), and the deer are considered sacred animals - 'messengers of the gods - in Japan. Today twenty deer live in the temple complex. You can feed them with carrots sold there.

Access: 10-minute walk from JR Kashima-Jingu station. From JR Tokyo Station, take the Sobu Kaisoku line to Chiba, change to the Narita line, and go to Sawara Station, then take the Kashima line to get to Kashima-Jingu station. It takes 2.5 hours from Tokyo.

Nara Park

This is probably the best-known place to see deers roaming amongst people in Japan. The park includes Todai-ji, Kofuku-ji, Kasuga Taisha, and Nara National Museum.

In the Nara period (710- 794), at the founding of the Kasuga Taisha in 768, the kami Takemikazuchi was asked to visit the new temple, Kashima-jingu, rode on the back of a white deer to the top of Mount Mikasa. This kami is said to have traveled from the Kashima Jingu Shrine to protect Nara. He then became one of four kami of Kasuga Taisha, and the deer became full-fledged residents of Nara Park. They are considered national treasures to this day!

1,300 deer live in this park and are very friendly. Special crackers for the deer (made with rice bran and flour) are sold all over the park, so please do not give anything else to the deer to eat!

Every October a traditional event takes place: the cutting of the large antlers of male deer during the mating season, for the safety of the deers and visitors. It's an impressive ceremony that is fascinating to watch.

Access: From Kintetsu Nara Station it's a 5-minute walk, and from JR Nara Station it's a 20-minute walk.

Mishima Taisha

This is the Shinto shrine associated with Minamoto no Yoritomo, that protects the Izu Peninsula. It is known for its sacred tree, a fragrant olive tree 1,200 years old! In 1919, deers from Kasuga Taisha were presented as an offering to Mishima Taisha (三嶋大社) in Shizuoka prefecture. A dozen deers are now protected in an enclosure there.

Access: from Mishima Shinkansen station it's a 7-minute walk.

Kinkasan

Kinkasan (金華山) is a small sacred island in Miyagi prefecture in northeastern Japan in the Pacific Ocean, 700m from the Oshika Peninsula. The Koganeyama Shrine is one of the major Tohoku shrines, along with the three mountains of Dewa (Yamagata) and Mount Osore (Aomori).

Having suffered extensive damage after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, this temple, located inside a national park, is part of the Sanriku reconstruction project. Again the deers are messengers of the kami, and 450 deer currently roam freely in the area. Here too, the ceremony of cutting their antlers takes place in October.

Access: From Sendai Shinkansen station, take the Senseki Line to its terminus, Ishinomaki. Take the Miyako bus to the port of Ayukawa. 20-minutes by boat (around 2,500 yen or $22/20€).

Miyajima

On the island of Miyajima (宮島) in Hiroshima prefecture, again, around 500 deer roam freely. In this region, there were wild deer long before Miyajima became a sacred (and inhabited) island 6,000 years ago. For a long time, they roamed the mountains, but with tourism, the deers ventured down to the coast where they are still found today. They have become extremely tame, and tourists have been forbidden to feed the deer since 2008, as it disrupted their dietary balance and they grew too dependent on humans and food fed. A project to return the wild deers to the mountains is under consideration for the future.

Access: From JR Hiroshima Station, take the Sanyo Honsen line to Miyajimaguchi station, then take the ferry, a 10-minute ride.

Fragile messengers

Many deers in these places interact with humans daily as the people have grown used to them, and they to us. Unfortunately, some problems have arisen because of the influx of tourists in places like Nara and Miyajima.

The deers can suffer from nutritional problems (which can cause death) for feeding on the remains people discard, even in the trash cans, and often consume the plastics and papers along with the waste. It is therefore very important not to leave anything lying around, much less on the ground.

From September to November, mating season, males are often aggressive. From May to July is when fawns come to life, and females are not always friendly. The deers are wild animals, so avoid approaching them during these periods and treat them with the utmost respect throughout the year. The Japanese have coexisted with these animals for centuries. Follow their lead, as humans and animals can still live in harmony.