The deer in Nara Park are a nationally designated natural monument, and they are counted. The Nara Deer Preservation Foundation’s survey of 16 July 2026 put the herd at 1,687 head: 411 males, 990 females and 286 fawns, up 222 on the year before. That single number decides more about a visit than any opening time, because everything else in the park is arranged around animals nobody owns.

The park is also a stack of separate institutions. Each hall, shrine precinct and museum inside it sets its own fee and its own hours, and none of the pages read here attaches a charge to the ground between them. The figures below come from the temples, the shrine, the national museum, the deer foundation, the national cultural-properties database and Kintetsu, read in September 2026.

The park has been a designated Place of Scenic Beauty since 1922

The national cultural-properties database lists Nara Park under the name Nara Park, category Place of Scenic Beauty, designated on 8 March 1922, covering Noboriojicho, Takabatakecho, Kasuganocho and Zoshicho. The same record states that the park is run by Nara Prefecture and that it began in 1880, when about 43,000 tsubo of the former Kofukuji precinct and Kasugano were marked out as a park. The deer foundation’s own chronology gives the same opening year.

Three further designations overlap the same ground. Kasugayama Primeval Forest, on the slope behind the shrine, was designated on 9 December 1924 and raised to Special Natural Monument on 15 February 1955. The former precinct of Kofukuji was designated a Historic Site on 10 May 1967, with an addition on 15 March 2022. And the temples and the forest are components of the World Heritage property registered as the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara, whose listed components are Todaiji, Kofukuji, Kasuga Taisha, Kasugayama Primeval Forest, Gangoji, Yakushiji, Toshodaiji and the Nara Palace Site.

The deer were designated in 1957, and two official counts of them disagree

The database record for the deer gives the name Nara no Shika, the category Natural Monument, the designation date 18 September 1957 and the location as the whole of Nara City. The foundation’s history adds that they were provisionally designated ten years earlier, in 1947, under a slightly different written form of the name.

Who counts them matters. The Nara Deer Preservation Foundation, established on 6 March 1934 and based at 160-1 Kasuganocho, publishes the annual survey quoted above: 1,687 head as of 16 July 2026. Kasuga Taisha’s own page, live on the same day, states that about 1,300 deer live in the area centred on Nara Park. Neither organisation explains the other’s figure, and they are counting on different dates and possibly different boundaries.

The foundation also publishes what it costs to keep a wild herd inside a city. In the fiscal year ending 31 March 2026 it recorded 85 road accidents involving deer and 43 deer deaths, and it asks drivers to stay below 40 km/h in the park day and night. There are no rubbish bins anywhere in the park, because deer swallow litter. The foundation runs rescue on a 24-hour basis. Of the deer crackers sold to visitors it says plainly that they contain no spices and no sugar at all, and that part of the proceeds funds protection work.

The foundation opens two things of its own to the public. The Rokuen enclosure opens 10:00 to 16:00 outside its special-opening periods, with no admission charge but a suggested contribution of 100 yen per person towards feed. The antler-cutting ceremony on 7 and 8 November costs 1,000 yen for junior-high age and above and 500 yen for elementary pupils, on same-day tickets only; the foundation dates the practice to 1672.

What actually charges admission inside the park

Todaiji states that admission is collected at four places, the Great Buddha Hall, the Hokkedo, the Kaidando and the Todaiji Museum, and that payment is cash only. Kasuga Taisha charges nothing at its main worship hall approach but 700 yen for the inner Special Worship. The Nara National Museum charges for the permanent collection but prints three separate exemptions.

Place Adult Reduced Hours
Todaiji, each of four halls 800 yen (junior high and above) 400 yen (elementary) Great Buddha Hall 7:30 to 17:30, April to October
Todaiji, Great Buddha Hall in winter 800 yen 400 yen 8:00 to 17:00, November to March
Todaiji, Hokkedo and Kaidando 800 yen 400 yen 8:30 to 16:00 all year
Todaiji, hall and museum set ticket 1,200 yen 600 yen (elementary) Museum 9:30 to 17:30 April to October, 9:30 to 17:00 November to March
Kasuga Taisha, main sanctuary approach No charge No charge 6:30 to 17:30, March to October
Kasuga Taisha, Special Worship 700 yen 700 yen 9:00 to 16:00
Kasuga Taisha, Kokuhoden museum 700 yen 400 yen students, 300 yen school pupils 10:00 to 17:00, last entry 16:30
Nara National Museum, permanent collection 700 yen 350 yen university students 9:30 to 17:00, closed Mondays

The exemptions are printed rather than implied. At the Nara National Museum, anyone in high school or below, anyone under 18 and anyone aged 70 or over enters the permanent collection free, the last group on production of proof of date of birth, and a visitor with a disability certificate or the Mirairo ID app enters free together with an equal number of carers. Todaiji cuts its own fees for groups of 30 or more to 700 yen for adults, 500 for high-school pupils, 400 for junior-high and 200 for elementary, and charges holders of a disability certificate 400 yen and 200 yen. Kasuga Taisha’s Man’yo Botanical Garden is 700 yen for adults and 300 yen for children, with a group rate of 600 yen, and its car park holds 100 vehicles at 1,500 yen for a car and 4,000 yen for a bus. The Kokuhoden museum carries a group rate of its own, 600 yen for parties of 20 or more.

The two language versions of the Todaiji fee table do not use the same brackets. The Japanese table divides visitors by school grade, listing high-school, junior-high and elementary pupils; the English table divides them by age, listing 16 to 18, 13 to 15 and 6 to 12 years old. The prices line up, but the boundaries do not have to: the Japanese joint-pass row reads 1,200 yen for junior-high age and above, while the English joint-pass row gives an adult price and a 6 to 12 price and says nothing about the years between. Both pages were live in September 2026 and neither explains the other. Todaiji also prints an exemption that is easy to miss: guide training is free, but the representative must submit an original fee-exemption application bearing an official seal to the temple office in advance.

The Nara National Museum’s two language versions differ in a smaller way. The Japanese access page offers a 15-minute walk from Kintetsu Nara or the city loop bus; the English page adds a third option, the Nara Park or Omiya routes of the Gurutto Bus to the Daibutsuden-Mae Parking Lot stop and a five-minute walk.

What the Todaiji ticket buys is measurable. The temple gives the Great Buddha Hall as 57.012 metres east to west, 50.480 metres north to south and 48.742 metres high, and the seated statue inside it as 14.98 metres tall. An audio guide is 500 yen per person.

Closing days differ, and one shrine gives two sets of hours

Todaiji states that it has no closing days barring special events or an emergency. The Nara National Museum closes every Monday and from 28 December to 1 January, and it moves its hours for the Shosoin Exhibition: for the 78th exhibition, from 24 October to 9 November 2026, it opens 8:00 to 18:00, and to 20:00 on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. While its Buddhist Sculpture Hall is closed for renovation, from 14 September 2026 to around spring 2028, the museum’s Ritual Bronzes Gallery can be viewed free.

Kasuga Taisha publishes two different sets of gate times on its own site. The site-wide header gives 6:00 to 18:00, while the General Information page gives 6:30 to 17:30 from March to October and 7:00 to 17:00 from November to February. Both were live in September 2026 and neither page explains the other. The shrine dates its founding to 768, by order of Empress Shotoku, and counts about 3,000 lanterns in its precincts.

Two stations serve the park, and one of them carries its name

Kintetsu added the sub-name Nara Park to Kintetsu Nara Station on 3 December 2022, stating in its announcement that it did so because the park is within walking distance and the station is convenient for reaching it. The same announcement records that the station handled 42,810 boarding and alighting passengers per weekday in a November 2021 traffic survey.

The walking times come from the destinations rather than the railway. Todaiji prints about 20 minutes east from Kintetsu Nara along Noboriojicho. The Nara National Museum prints about 15 minutes east along the same street. Kasuga Taisha prints about 25 minutes from the same station. Every one of those three figures is measured from Kintetsu Nara rather than from JR Nara, the other station in the city, so a JR arrival adds a leg that none of the three sites quantifies on the pages read here.

Sources Checked

Nara Deer Preservation Foundation — population survey
Confirmed the 2026 survey figures of 1,687 head as of 16 July 2026 with 411 males, 990 females and 286 fawns and a year-on-year increase of 222.
https://naradeer.com/learning/number.html

Nara Deer Preservation Foundation — outline of the foundation
Confirmed its establishment on 6 March 1934 and its address at 160-1 Kasuganocho, Nara.
https://naradeer.com/about/outline.html

Nara Deer Preservation Foundation — history of protection
Confirmed the provisional designation in 1947 under a slightly different written form of the name, the 1957 designation, and the 1880 opening of the park.
https://naradeer.com/learning/hogonorekishi.html

Nara Deer Preservation Foundation — problems page
Confirmed the request to drive below 40 km/h in the park day and night, the 85 road accidents involving deer and 43 deer deaths recorded in the year to 31 March 2026, the absence of rubbish bins because deer swallow litter, the 24-hour rescue service, and the statement that the deer crackers contain no spices and no sugar with part of the proceeds funding protection work.
https://naradeer.com/learning/problem.html

Nara Deer Preservation Foundation — Rokuen enclosure
Confirmed the opening hours of 10:00 to 16:00 outside the special-opening periods, with no admission charge and a suggested contribution of 100 yen per person towards feed.
https://naradeer.com/event/rokuen.html

Nara Deer Preservation Foundation — antler-cutting ceremony
Confirmed the dates of 7 and 8 November, the charges of 1,000 yen for junior-high age and above and 500 yen for elementary pupils on same-day tickets only, and the dating of the practice to 1672.
https://naradeer.com/event/tsunokiri.html

Agency for Cultural Affairs — national cultural-properties database, Nara Park
Confirmed Nara Park as a Place of Scenic Beauty designated 8 March 1922 across Noboriojicho, Takabatakecho, Kasuganocho and Zoshicho, its administration by Nara Prefecture, and its 1880 origin from about 43,000 tsubo of the former Kofukuji precinct and Kasugano.
https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/401/1940

Agency for Cultural Affairs — national cultural-properties database, Nara no Shika
Confirmed the deer designation of 18 September 1957 as a Natural Monument covering the whole of Nara City.
https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/401/3133

Agency for Cultural Affairs — national cultural-properties database, Kasugayama Primeval Forest
Confirmed the designation of 9 December 1924 and the raising to Special Natural Monument on 15 February 1955.
https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/401/1951

Agency for Cultural Affairs — national cultural-properties database, former precinct of Kofukuji
Confirmed the Historic Site designation of 10 May 1967 with an addition on 15 March 2022.
https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/401/2010

Agency for Cultural Affairs — national heritage database, Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara
Confirmed the component list of Todaiji, Kofukuji, Kasuga Taisha, Kasugayama Primeval Forest, Gangoji, Yakushiji, Toshodaiji and the Nara Palace Site.
https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/901/7

Todaiji — admission page, access page and Great Buddha Hall page
Confirmed that admission is collected at the Great Buddha Hall, Hokkedo, Kaidando and Todaiji Museum and that payment is cash only, the individual fees of 800 and 400 yen, the set ticket of 1,200 and 600 yen, the group rates of 700, 500, 400 and 200 yen, the disability-certificate rates of 400 and 200 yen, the hours of 7:30 to 17:30 from April to October, 8:00 to 17:00 from November to March, 8:30 to 16:00 for the Hokkedo and Kaidando and 9:30 to 17:30 for the museum with last entry at 17:00, the statement that the temple has no closing days barring special events, the audio guide at 500 yen, the fee-exemption application bearing an official seal required for guide training, the walk of about 20 minutes from Kintetsu Nara, and the hall dimensions of 57.012, 50.480 and 48.742 metres with a statue height of 14.98 metres. On the English version of the same page, confirmed the age brackets of 16 to 18, 13 to 15 and 6 to 12 years old against the Japanese school grades and the joint-pass rows in both languages.
https://www.todaiji.or.jp/information/haikan/

Kasuga Taisha — general information and about pages
Confirmed that the main sanctuary approach carries no charge and the Special Worship costs 700 yen, the worship hours of 6:30 to 17:30 from March to October and 7:00 to 17:00 from November to February against the site header of 6:00 to 18:00, the Special Worship hours of 9:00 to 16:00, the Kokuhoden fees of 700, 400 and 300 yen with a 600 yen group rate and hours of 10:00 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:30, the Man’yo Botanical Garden at 700 and 300 yen with a 600 yen group rate, the car park of 100 spaces at 1,500 yen and 4,000 yen, the walk of about 25 minutes from Kintetsu Nara, the founding in 768 by order of Empress Shotoku, the figure of about 3,000 lanterns, and the statement that about 1,300 deer live in the area.
https://www.kasugataisha.or.jp/about/basic/

Nara National Museum — admission and access pages
Confirmed the permanent-collection fees of 700 yen and 350 yen, free entry for high-school pupils and under-18s, for anyone aged 70 or over on proof of date of birth and for a disability certificate or Mirairo ID holder with an equal number of carers, the hours of 9:30 to 17:00 with last entry 30 minutes before closing, closure on Mondays and from 28 December to 1 January, the 78th Shosoin Exhibition dates of 24 October to 9 November 2026 with hours of 8:00 to 18:00 and to 20:00 on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, the free Ritual Bronzes Gallery while the Buddhist Sculpture Hall is closed from 14 September 2026 to around spring 2028, and the walk of about 15 minutes from Kintetsu Nara, together with the additional Gurutto Bus option that appears only on the English access page.
https://www.narahaku.go.jp/info/fee/

Kintetsu Railway — sub-station-name announcement
Confirmed the addition of the sub-name Nara Park to Kintetsu Nara Station from 3 December 2022, the stated reason, and the figure of 42,810 boarding and alighting passengers per weekday in the November 2021 traffic survey.
https://www.kintetsu.co.jp/all_news/news_info/fukuekimei.pdf

Last updated: September 2026