The forest surrounding Kasuga Grand Shrine has been protected for over a thousand years — forbidden from hunting and tree-felling since 841 CE, making it one of the oldest protected forests in the world. The result is a genuine primeval woodland of towering cedars, oaks, and maples with almost no undergrowth, the light filtering through the canopy in shafts that feel ancient and entirely separate from the busy tourist trails fifty metres away.
A network of paths runs through the forest above the shrine, including the Kasugayama Forest Path, which winds uphill through increasingly thick forest to several viewpoints. In autumn the maples and ginkgoes turn vivid colours; in late spring the forest floor has a green luminosity that is unusual even in Japan. The forest is an extension of the same ecosystem that has produced the sacred deer of Nara Park, and deer tracks and droppings are visible throughout.