NARA  , a

town of Japan, in the province of Yamato, 254 M. from Osaka by rail . Pop . 32,000 . It lies on the slope of a range of picturesque hills, beautifully wooded with cryptomerias, evergreen oaks, &c . This was the first permanent capital of Japan . Up to the beginning of the 8th century the imperial court changed its location at the accession of each sovereign, and the court's place of residence naturally became the official metropolis . But Nara remained the metropolis during seven consecutive reigns (709 to 784), and its seventy-five years of favoured existence sufficed for the building and furnishing of several imposing shrines and temples, for the laying out of a noble park, for the casting of a colossal image of Buddha, and for the execution of many other beautiful specimens of applied art . Not much is known of the Nara palace in its original form, but many of the articles and ornaments used by its inmates survive in a celebrated collection which, during nearly twelve hundred years, had been preserved in a store-house (Shoso-in) near the temple of Todai-ji . This collection cannot be visited by strangers more than once a year, and even then only by special permission . The vigorous growth of the Buddhist creed through-out the Nara epoch was remarkable, and found outward expression in many striking architectural and artistic works . The best of these, namely, those dating from the first half of the 8th century, show Indo-Grecian affinities, which gradually grow fainter as the end of the epoch approaches . The temple called Todai-ji was completed about 750 .

At

present the buildings enclose a quadrangle 520 ft. by 620, the south side being mainly occupied by the huge, ungainly and no longer perpendicular hall containing the Dai Butsu, or colossal statue of Buddha . The casting of this wonderful piece of work was accomplished after eight failures in 749 by Takusho, an artist from Korea . On two occasions the head was melted during the burning of the temple (1180 and 1567) and from 1567 to 1697 the statue stood exposed to the weather . The height of the figure is 53 ft . On a hill to the east of the temple stands a bell-house with a huge bell, cast in 732, 134 ft. high, 9 ft. across the mouth and weighing 37 tons . The great Buddha is often spoken of as the most remarkable of the Nara relics; but restorations have so marred it that it can no longer be compared with many smaller examples of contemporaneous and subsequent sculpture . More worthy of close attention are two effigies of Brahma and Indra preserved among the relics of Kobuku-ji, which, with Kasuga-no-Miya, Ni-gwatsudo and Todai-ji, constitute the chief religious edifices . These figures, sculptured in wood, have suffered much from the ravages of time, but nothing could destroy the grandeur of their proportions or the majesty and dignity of their pose . Several other works of scarcely inferior excellence may be seen among the relics, and at the shrine of Kasuga is performed a religious dance called Kagura, in which the costumes and gestures of the dancers are doubtless the same as those of twelve centuries back . Kasugano-Miya was founded in 767, and its chapels with their rough red-painted log-work afford fine examples of primitive Japanese architecture . In the temple-park are herds of tame deer; and little images of deer and trinkets from deer's horn are the favourite charms purchased by the pilgrims . Within the enclosure stands a curious old trunk of seven plants entwined, including a camellia, cherry and wistaria .

Of the great Buddhist temple Kobuku-ji, founded in 710, and burnt for the third time in 1717, there remains little

save two lofty pagodas . A railway now gives access to the town, but every effort is made to preserve all the ancient features of Nara . A museum has been formed, where many antique objects of great interest are displayed, as well as works from the hands of comparatively modern artists . Nara in the days of its prosperity is said to have had a population of a quarter of a million .