The year 2010 marks the 1300th anniversary of the founding of Nara, the former capital of Japan and one of my favorite places in the world. The city was built by Empress Gemmei in 710 in imitation of the Chinese city of Xi’an (where the terra cotta soldiers were buried), and it served as the center of Japanese civilization until 794 when the new capital of Heian-kyo (Kyoto) was established. During the Nara Period, Japan experienced an influx of Buddhist art and culture, and the oldest works of Japanese literature appeared during this time. Today Nara is principally famous for Todai-ji, the breathtakingly beautiful temple that houses the largest bronze Buddha statue in the world, and for deer, which walk freely throughout the sprawling Nara Park. The city government combined these two images to create Sento-kun, the official mascot commemorating the city’s 1300-year history. Nara’s birthday celebration will be going on all year, so if you have any plans to be in Japan, consider adding the city to your list of places to visit. (See this page for some useful tourist information.)
Walking through very old places like Nara, it might be easy to think that the fascination we foreigners feel for Japan is a new thing, but it’s not. Back in the 1920s, a famous gaijin by the name of Albert Einstein visited Japan, invited to hold a series of lectures on General Relativity so that the Japanese could understand his theories. (If I know anything after teaching ESL for eight years, I’m pretty sure they smiled politely but didn’t understand a word he said.) Everywhere Einstein went he was followed by reporters and fawning fans, and he stayed many months here, traveling all around the country and sharing his thoughts with leading Japanese scientists. He also schlepped around the Kyoto area, and was fascinated by the physics behind the nightingale floors in Nijojo Castle, which are designed to squeak when walked on so that ninja couldn’t sneak into the castle. He also stayed in a traditional ryokan inn in Nara and walked around feeding the deer, just like foreign visitors do today. It’s kind of cool to feel a kinship with such a famous person — did he have trouble keeping his yukata on while he slept, too? How did he manage with chopsticks?
Nara is a beautiful ancient city in Japan, one of my favorites.
