Miyajima Island (formally known as Itsukushima) is located in Hiroshima Bay and best known for UNESCO World Heritage Itsukushima Shrine and its floating torii gate. But the island is also well known for some of its residents – the wild Sika deer.
In Shinto religion, deer are considered sacred messengers of the gods. In Japan, the deer are most famous in Nara, a city about 45 minutes outside Kyoto and Osaka. Legend has it that in the 8th century the great Shinto deity Takemikazuchi-no-mikoto arrived in Nara riding a white deer. He was enshrined in Kasuga Temple in 768, and it is believed that his messengers have taken the form of deer and continue to watch over the city. So sacred are deer in Japan that harming or killing them was a crime punishable by death until 1637. Today Nara is home to over 1,200 deer, many of whom have learned how to bow to visitors in order to be fed crackers. The animals are omnipresent in Nara… and famously quite aggressive.
Miyajima has a smaller – and friendlier – population of Sika deer. The roughly 500 deer roam freely around the island and tend to congregate around the ferry terminal and the main streets of town where the most people are. They are wild and (unlike in Nara) feeding them is prohibited.
But apparently nobody told that to the deer. Although they are nowhere near as aggressive as the deer in Nara, they are not afraid of people or of trying to steal their food. We watched a deer stick its head in a woman’s purse, pull out a map, and proceed to eat it. We watched multiple deer attempt to steal food from bags or out of people’s hands, and we had to move away and eat our lunch elsewhere when we had some deer continually approach us and try to nudge their way to our food. Overall the deer are persistent but not aggressive and we found it highly entertaining to watch their antics.
Although the deer are most numerous right at the ferry terminal, we saw them all over the island. From the shrine grounds to the city streets to the beach to the calmer woods of Mount Misen, the deer were everywhere on the island.
But the most interesting place we saw a deer was partially inside a store. We’re not sure how this situation arose… or how it resolved since we were rushing to catch a ferry. This store clearly left water for the deer to drink. We just don’t know how removed its head once it was done.
Overall we felt like the deer of Miyajima added a lot to our visit. They were slightly pushy but not overly aggressive, and they successfully toed the line between being entertaining and annoying. We did not make it to Nara so we were glad we got to experience the wild Sika deer of Miyajima instead.
