S P O T ／ SPOT-031

Zutō (Nara's Pyramid)

頭塔（奈良のピラミッド）ずとう

In a residential neighborhood of Nara City, between ordinary houses and municipal roads, a stepped seven-layer earthen pyramid rises 10 meters from the ground, its sides measuring 32 meters, its construction dating to the Nara Period (roughly 1,300 years ago). The Zutō — "Head Mound" — takes its name from a story that has haunted the site ever since its telling: the monk Genbō, a politically controversial figure of the 8th century, was said to have had his severed head fall from the sky after his death. The head was buried here. Each layer of the pyramid holds stone Buddha images, and the overall structure defies clean categorization in any school of Nara Buddhist architecture. Why it was built in this specific form — a stepped pyramid surrounded by ordinary houses, visible from the road and apparently hiding in plain sight — is a question that continues to agitate historians and attracts a reliable stream of visitors from the Ancient-Mystery end of the tourism spectrum.