The main reason I wanted to go to Nara now was The 69th Annual Exhibition of Shōsō-in Treasures at Nara National Museum. One of our lecturers had recommended it, and I definitely don't regret checking it out. Shōsō-in is the treasure house that belongs to the Tōdai-ji temple and, as you probably have now figured out, every year they exhibit some of its treasures. The exhibition is very short, this year from Oct 28 to Nov 13, so I either had to go there this weekend or the next - and as the weather forecast was quite promising, I decided to do it now.
Our lecturer had warned us that you might have to queue really long to get in, so I wasn't surprised to see that the estimated waiting time was one hour when I arrived there. Now, if I had (again) been sensible, I'd have first gone to see the temples and then to the museum, as the museum was open until 8 pm and the temples closed around 4:30... but I wasn't. And just guess what the estimated waiting time was around 5 pm? Five minutes. Typical. But then again, I'm sure it didn't take an hour, maybe more like half an hour. The greater problem was that it was kind of crowded inside, too, so at times you had to wait to get to see the more popular items.
Oh, and I almost screwed up right away. I might have mentioned before my non-existing powers of observation? When I came to the museum, the long line took all my attention, and so I marched straight to its end, right by the place where you buy tickets. Luckily there was a guy bellowing into a megaphone something about "if there are people who don't have tickets..." I didn't understand the end of the sentence, but what I did understand was enough to make me worried, and so I asked the other people in the line.... and went back to get my ticket, just being happy I'd realized this now and not after having queued for an hour. In the end I didn't even lose my place in the line, as there was a very friendly Japanese lady who took me back to my old place... she'd been next to me in line and she said she also hadn't had a ticket (that was pretty much all I understood of her chatting... ^^;) but I'm not exactly sure how it all worked out and where she popped up from at the ticket booth... (I didn't see her going there before me, and if she came after me, how could she be waiting for me after I got my ticket... well, whatever. She was really nice and friendly, that's the main point.)
The exhibition was worth facing the crowds. I wish I'd had a pen and paper to write down the things I enjoyed most as I have now forgotten all the details, but my favorite items were a badly damaged kugo harp (there was also a replica of what it most likely looked like), a gorgeous little penknife (seriously, they should sell replicas of it. I'd buy, no matter the price!), beautiful wood & mother-of-pearl game board (you'll see a replica in a video later in this post), and a Karura mask. All of them from 8th or 9th centuries.
A screen panel from the exhibition, said to have been a
personal possession of Emperor Shōmu (701-756).
personal possession of Emperor Shōmu (701-756).
The museum ticket also included entrance to the Buddhist sculpture hall, but at that point I was getting quite hungry and a bit tired of museums, so I must admit I ran it through quite quickly. But the image of Bishamenton remains with me - or at least the image of the oni he was trampling, with bulging, red-veined eyes...
After lunch I started gradually to make my way toward the temples of Nara (main goals being Tōdai-ji and Kōfuku-ji), but the deer kept on distracting me. According to the legends, Takemikazuchi-no-mikoto, the first of Kasuga shrine’s four deities, arrived to the shrine riding a white deer, and so the deer of the area are sacred. This day they wander freely in the Nara park, sometimes straying also into the city. You can buy special deer crackers to feed them.
Btw, this is where I ate. Had kitsune udon. Really good.
Waiting for a bus....
Some of them were really cute...
....and some were kinda mean-looking....
But they all loved the cookies.
Gimme a cookie.
Gimme.
Gimme!
Finally approaching Nandaimon, (the Great South Gate of Tōdai-ji).
But... a gate to a great temple has guardians, you know? Luckily I managed to bribe my way past him...
Well. Here are the real guardians. Not interested in deer crackers.
Although I kind of wish I had done my touring in Nara in different order, I must say that I arrived at an excellent moment at Tōdai-ji, right in time for this:
Someone kept on pushing at me in the beginning.... xD Anyway, at 2:24 there's a lady carrying a similar game board as I saw in the museum. Of course, you can't see the details here, so you just have to take my word on how beautiful it was. So detailed, with different types of wood and mother-of-pearl.
The Great Buddha Hall:
And the great Buddha:
The construction of Tōdai-ji (and the Buddha statue) was begun in 729 and completed in 751. It has been rebuilt twice because of a fire, and the current building is from 1709. It is in fact smaller than the original, but even so it was the largest wooden building in the world for long... (apparently there are nowadays some modern buildings that are bigger (like some baseball stadium. Pffft. So doubleplusuncool.) ,Anyway, to give some dimensions, the Great Buddha is approximately 15 meters high.
This is Binzuru (Pindola Bharadvaja). According to belief, if you rub a part of Binzuru's body and then the corresponding part of your own body, whatever ailment you have there will disappear.
Annddd... then I had spent too much time
Oh well, next time. As I said, I'm sure to go to Nara again. I did miss Kōfuku-ji too this time, as it is. Too many distracting deer....
An attempt of a selfie with a deer who was not cooperating...
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