In 1177, Kujo Kanezane, a nobleman visiting the area with his family, encountered a herd of deer with his traveling party. Upon seeing the deer approach, a young boy got out of his carriage and bowed to them.
Then in 1189, Kanezane, the head of the Fujiware clan, was surveying the rebuilding of the temple on the site when a deer appeared inside the main hall. In his journal he wrote, "I was momentarily bewildered, then joined my hands and bowed to the deer." From then the deer were considered a lucky signal.
By the 1500s, thousands of deer roamed the city unchecked and revered. In this era, hunting the deer was punishable by death. Anyone who violated this decree had their property confiscated and their lineage cut off.
While this sentence hasn't been officially carried out since 1637, penalties remain. In 2010 a 40-year-old man was sentenced to 10 months in prison for killing a deer in the park with a crossbow.
