Nara

Nara is landlocked and divides into two very different halves. The north is the Nara Basin, a small, fertile plain where the Yamato kingship emerged, where Buddhism took root in Japan and where successive capitals – Asuka, Fujiwara-kyō and Heijō-kyō (Nara) – were built between the 6th and 8th centuries. The south, more than two-thirds of the area, is the forested, deeply cut Kii Mountains, with Yoshino, the Ōmine range and remote villages such as Totsukawa, Japan's largest village by area.

Few places in the world concentrate so much early heritage. The Nara Basin holds the world's oldest wooden buildings at Hōryū-ji, the colossal bronze Buddha of Tōdai-ji, the Kasuga shrine forest, hundreds of kofun tombs and the excavated palace sites of Asuka and Heijō. The Ōmine range is the birthplace of Shugendō, the mountain ascetic tradition, and its pilgrimage route to Kumano is part of the Kii Mountains World Heritage site.

Modern Nara is largely a commuter prefecture for Osaka, with many residents working across the Ikoma hills. Its industries are modest, but it produces goods with deep roots – ink sticks, brushes, Yoshino cedar, persimmons and sake.

The name Nara is recorded from the 8th century; its origin is uncertain, with theories linking it to the verb narasu ("to level"), describing flattened land, or to an old Korean word for country. The province of Yamato, whose name also came to stand for Japan itself, covered the same area. Nara Prefecture was formed in 1871, merged into Sakai Prefecture in 1876 and then into Osaka in 1881, and was re-established in 1887 after a local campaign for independence.

The Nara Basin, about 30 kilometres from north to south, is enclosed by the Ikoma and Kongō ranges to the west and the Kasagi and Yamato highlands to the east; its rivers drain through the Yamato River gorge towards Osaka. Low sacred mountains stand at its edges, such as Mount Miwa, worshipped as a deity, and the Three Mountains of Yamato around Kashihara.

South of the Yoshino River the land rises into the Kii Mountains. The Ōmine range forms the spine, with Hakkyō-ga-take (1,915 m) the highest peak in Kansai; to the east lies the extremely wet Ōdaigahara plateau. The Totsukawa and Kitayama rivers cut deep valleys south towards the Kumano River and the Pacific.

The Nara Basin has an inland climate with hot summers and cold winters, including frequent frost and fog. The mountains of the south are much cooler and very wet: Ōdaigahara receives some of the highest rainfall in Japan, and heavy snow can fall on the high ridges. Typhoons periodically cause landslides in the Kii Mountains, as in 2011.

The Nara Basin was the political centre of Japan from the rise of the Yamato kings, marked by early keyhole tombs such as Hashihaka around 250 CE, to the move of the capital to Nagaoka in 784. Buddhism was introduced in the 6th century; the Soga clan and Prince Shōtoku built Asuka-dera and Hōryū-ji. The Asuka period saw Japan's first legal codes and its first grid-plan capital at Fujiwara-kyō (694). In 710 the court moved to Heijō-kyō, and under Emperor Shōmu the Tōdai-ji Great Buddha was dedicated in 752.

After the capital left, Nara's great temples remained powerful landholders, and the Kōfuku-ji effectively governed Yamato in the Middle Ages. The Yoshino mountains sheltered the Southern Court of the rival imperial line from 1336 to 1392. In the Edo period Nara flourished as a pilgrimage and craft town. Much of its heritage survived modern wars intact, leading to three World Heritage inscriptions.

Nara is the setting of Japan's oldest literature – the Kojiki, Nihon Shoki and the Man'yōshū poetry anthology all emerged from its court. The Shōsōin treasury preserves some 9,000 objects from the 8th century, displayed in part each autumn at the Nara National Museum. Many classical arts have roots here: the Konparu and Kanze schools of Noh trace their origins to Yamato sarugaku troupes, and the tea ceremony's founder Murata Jukō was a Nara monk.

Nara cooking reflects temple life and the mountains. Kakinoha-zushi preserves salted mackerel in persimmon leaves; Miwa sōmen, thin wheat noodles, are said to be Japan's oldest noodles; nara-zuke pickles vegetables in sake lees. Nara also claims to be the birthplace of refined sake at Shōryaku-ji.

Nara is primarily residential, with a large share of residents commuting to Osaka. Industries include machinery and electronics in the north, the traditional ink, brush and tea-whisk crafts, socks and knitwear in the Kōryō area, and forestry based on Yoshino cedar and cypress. Agriculture is known for persimmons (Nara is among the leading producers), strawberries and tea. Tourism centres on Nara city, Asuka and Yoshino.