NARAGAKUEN Junior High School, High School

Our Prefecture

Nara Prefecture

Our prefecture is located almost at the center of the Japanese archipelago. The area of this prefecture is about 3,700 square kilometers. Its population is about 1 million 400 thousand.

This area was where our ancient capitals were in the 7th and 8th centuries. We can visit many famous temples and shrines which remain from those days in Nara Prefecture. Horyuji temple and Todaiji temple are among those that are well-known.

Mt. Ohmine

Mt. Ohmine, which is 1719m above sea level, is located in the southern area of Nara Prefecture. It takes about 3 hours by car from Nara City to get to Dorogawa, the starting point for going up the mountain.

This mountain is well-known as a holy mountain where the Yamabushi (a group of ancient priests) began to train themselves by going up the rugged path while chanting their sutra about 1300 years ago.

This mountainous area including Mt. Ohmine was designated as a World Cultural Heritage. A lot of people go up the mountain in summer, some for religious reasons and others for pleasure.

Women, however, are forbidden to enter this holy mountain because of religious tradition. In Japan, there were other holy mountains where this strict religious restriction was applied, but these days Mt. Ohmine is the only mountain that still maintains this rule.

Mt. Ohmine
Mt. Ohmine
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Mt. Odaigahara

Mt. Odaigahara is located in the southern area of Nara Prefecture. It takes about 3 hours to get there by car from Nara City.


The mountain is 1695m above sea level, but we can drive up to the parking lot near the top. From spring through fall many people visit there to walk along the ridges enjoying the fine view of the high mountains in the surrounding area, looking at the alpine vegetation, bird-watching (listening to them sing, too), and so on.


If you are very lucky, you can see a small Mt. Fuji to the east. However, such days are very rare in a year because there must be no clouds all the way from Nara Prefecture to Shizuoka (about 400 km), as well as very little exhaust fumes from cars.


During the winter season the road to the top is closed because of heavy snowfall.
If you visit Nara Prefecture, it is recommended visiting this mountain where you will feel relaxed in such a wonderful natural setting.

Mt. Odaigahara
Mt. Odaigahara
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Todai-ji Temple (Nara City)

Todai-ji Temple is the most popular temple in Nara Prefecture because it houses the Great Buddha in the Daibutsuden (The Great Buddha Hall).


The temple was originally founded in 728 as Kinsho-ji Temple, a place where the spirit of Crown Prince Motoi could repose. Then in 749, the Great Buddha was completed, and
in 752 a lavish consecration ceremony was held inviting priests from all over Asia.


The Hall is magnificent and is also the biggest wooden building in the world. Its height is 49m and the width is about 57m. The building is the Main Hall of Todai-ji Temple, which had been destroyed twice by fire, first in 1180 and then again in 1567.


Todai-ji Temple is one of Japan's famous World Cultural Heritage Sites which also
include Kasuga-taisha Shrine, Kofuku-ji Temple, Yakushi-ji Temple (which are alllocated in Nara), and others.

Todai-ji Temple  (Nara City)
Todai-ji Temple  (Nara City)
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Horyu-ji Temple

To the south of our school there stands Horyu-ji Temple which was designated as the first World Cultural Heritage site in Japan. We can get there in about 40 minutes on foot from our school. The temple was first built in the year 607 and rebuilt around 711. It is the oldest wooden building in the world among all existing wooden structures.

A lot of tourists visit there not only from around Japan but many foreign countries too.

Horyu-ji Temple
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Yamato-Koriyama City

Our school is located in the western part of Yamato-Koriyama City. This city is famous for goldfish and is first in Japan when it comes to the total number of cultured goldfish.

Koriyama Castle Site

At the center of Koriyama City there remains a site, where Koriyama Castle was founded by Junkei Tsutsui in 1580. He subjected the Yamato area(now Nara prefecture) to his rule in 1576 supported by Nobunaga Oda who controlled Japan in those days.

In 1858 a fire started by accident in a building inside the castle grounds and most of the original buildings burnt down. We can see the moat, stone walls, a few reconstructed buildings, a shrine and so on now.

Yoshiyasu Yanagisawa, lord of the castle since 1724, first brought goldfish to Koriyama City from Yamanashi prefecture. Then people here began to culture gold fish. This city is famous for it now.

Koriyama Castle Site
Koriyama Castle Site
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Matsuo-dera Temple

There is a famous temple near our school called Matsuo-dera. This temple was also built in the 8th century. People visit and pray here in hopes of driving out evil spirits.
The temple complex measuring 62,000 acres extends in the midst of thick foliage halfway up the Matsuo Hill west of Nara basin.

Matsuo-dera Temple
Matsuo-dera Temple
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Houki-ji Temple

To the east of Horyu-ji Temple we can find Houki-ji Temple. It is said that the temple was first built in the year 606 by Prince Shotoku who encouraged the teaching of Buddhist scripture there. At this temple the wooden pagoda is designated as a national treasure because it was built in 706 and is the oldest three-story pagoda in Japan. It is 23.9 meters high on a stone foundation.

Houki-ji Temple
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Hourin-ji Temple

Hourin-ji Temple is located close to Horyu-ji Temple, which was designated as the first World Cultural Heritage Site in Japan.

This temple was created by a son of Prince Shotoku about 1300 years ago, for wishing the prince would get well soon.

The three-story pagoda was first built in the Asuka period, 1300 years ago, and was designated as a national treasure.

In 1944, however, the pagoda burnt down after being struck by lightning. We can see a rebuilt pagoda there now which is an exact replica of the one in the Asuka period.

Inside the building called Koudo (Hall), stand excellent Buddhist statues.
One of them, Yakushi-nyorai, shows a specific feature of the Asuka period.
The shape of the face is elliptical compared with statues in later periods, when faces were rather circular or just a little elliptical.

Hourin-ji Temple
Hourin-ji Temple
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Yatadera Temple

To the north of our school stands Yatadera Temple which is famous for its many hydrangeas. In June a lot of tourists visit there to enjoy the relaxing ambience of the temple with so many hydrangeas.

The temple is originally well-known for Jizo-san, a kind of stone statue of Buddha. The oldest Jizo called Miso-name Jizo ( Jizo-tasting miso ) was made about 1,000 years ago.

Yatadera Temple
Yatadera Temple
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Jikouin Temple

Jikouin Temple in Koriyama City was founded in 1663 by the feudal lord, Sekishu Katagiri, to pray for his departed Father.

He mastered Zen Buddhism and the ways of the tea ceremony from a priest at the Daitokuji Temple in Kyoto.

Jikouin was built like a tea ceremony house with a beautiful garden, thatched roofs, two tea ceremony rooms and so on.

Many samurai, including the Shogun Ietsuna, began to learn about tea ceremony from Sekishu and his fame spread all over Japan in the Edo period.

Jikouin Temple
Jikouin Temple
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Meta Shrine

Meta Shrine is located in Yamato-Koriyama City. Are Hieda, who lived about 1300 years ago, is enshrined there. He devoted a lot editing the Kojiki ordered by the Emperor Temmu.

The Kojiki is a book that depicts how Japan was created by the gods and how they conquered the savage people living in the country at that time.

Are Hieda was a very smart person who had an excellent memory for history. People pay homage at this shrine now wishing to be wise like Are Hieda(who is worshipped as a god).

Meta Shrine
Meta Shrine
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Goldfish

Yamato-Koriyama City is well-known for cultured goldfish in Japan. We can see many preservation ponds in the city where goldfish of every variety are cultured.

Goldfish are said to have originated in China 2000 years ago, when a colored carp was created as a result of mutation. They naturally selected the colored ones and began culturing them. Then, in the middle of the Muromachi period (from 1336 to 1573), goldfish were brought into Japan.

According to the history of the city, goldfish were brought to Koriyama in 1724 when Yoshisato Yanagisawa, a feudal lord, was transferred from Yamanashi Prefecture to Nara.

Then, samurai warriors, who found it difficult to make a living, began to culture goldfish as a side job toward the end of the Edo period. In the Meiji period, farmers also began to culture them, which has lasted to the present day and has become one of the major businesses in the city.

Now, there are about 60 farmers who culture them, selling around 60 million goldfish and 20 thousand colored carp every year.

Goldfish
Goldfish
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Prefectural Folk Park

In Yamato-Koriyama City, Nara, there is a complex called Yamato Folk Park which includes the Prefectural Folk Museum, a Children's Playground, and folk houses that have been either recently re-constructed or refurbished-all found in a natural park setting.

We can see 15 old folk houses which were moved from various districts in this prefecture. In the north and central areas of this prefecture houses were mostly thatched. Farmers used to keep a cow in their houses, which usually lived in the first room (where straw was laid like a carpet) nearest the entrance. Cows played an important role in farming such as pulling a cart with a heavy burden, helping to cultivate fields and so on.

Another picture shows two farmers working to get rid of dirt from threshed rice. They turn a big fan inside the machine by hand which separates the dirt from the rice (the dirt is actually blown away). This machine was called a "Tohmi", meaning Chinese Fan.

We can see and learn how people once lived and worked (about 50 yrs. ago). The houses, machines, tools and daily goods remind elderly people of their childhood. Young people can also learn about the old life and work back then in Nara Prefecture.

Prefectural Folk Park
Prefectural Folk Park
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Ryosenji Temple

If you drive about 15 minutes north of our school along the Tomio River, you can find Ryosenji Temple. The temple owns and is located on a large area of land in the mountains and a lot of people visit there especially when the many beautiful roses are in bloom.

This temple was founded in 736 by the great priest, Gyoki, who also contributed to building the Great Buddha of Todaiji Temple, back when Nara used to be the capital of Japan.

The main building (Hondo) was built in 1283 of the Kamakura period, and is designated as a national treasure. The three-storied pagoda (Sanju-no-to) was also built in the same period and designated as an important cultural property.

According to the tradition of this temple, a hermit called Bikou worshiped Buddhist statues at a bath in this mountain. He cured people of their diseases by having them take a medicinal bath. This is said to be the origin of the temple.

If you walk about 2 kilometers up the mountain, there is a small shrine called Benzaiten that was said to be founded by the Great priest, Kobo-daishi, who started the Shingon Sect and also built the great temple at the top of Mt. Koya in Wakayama prefecture.

Ryosenji Temple
Ryosenji Temple
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