Kasugayama Primeval Forest

Ten minutes past the last lanterns of Kasuga Taisha, Nara Park stops feeling like a park. The deer thin out, the light drops, and the trees overhead are evergreen oaks and chinquapins that nobody has cut for a very long time. An imperial order in 841 banned hunting and logging on Mount Kasuga, and the forest has been kept as the shrine's sacred ground since. It became a Special Natural Monument in 1955 and part of the Nara World Heritage listing in 1998, with about 298 hectares under protection.

The rule that matters on the ground is that you stay on the path. A 9.4 km loop goes round the forest, and I would do it from the south. From the Wariishi-cho bus stop it is about 15 minutes through the old Takabatake district to the stone torii where the Takisaka no Michi begins. This is the old Yagyu road, 2.5 km of stone paving laid by the Nara magistrate in the Edo period, climbing beside a stream with small waterfalls. Carved into the rocks along it are the Yuhi Kannon, said to date from the Kamakura period, then the Asahi Kannon about 10 minutes on, then the Kubikiri Jizo, whose neck the swordsman Araki Mataemon is said to have cut in a test stroke. There are toilets and a rest area here.

About 15 minutes further, behind a fence, are the Kasugayama cave Buddhas, the Anabutsu: two shallow caves cut into soft tuff, with figures of Jizo, Kannon and others carved on the walls. Inscriptions date them to 1155 and 1157. A side path leads to the Jigokudani cave, where a seated Shaka about 1.4 m tall is cut in line on the back wall.

The return along the north side follows the Okuyama toll road, gravel in places and shared with the odd car, past the Uguisu waterfall to the back of Mount Wakakusa. Allow at least half a day for the loop. The stones stay wet for days, phone signal drops out in places, and there are no vending machines on the path, so bring your own water.