From May 1974 until March 1985, Kenji Inui wrote the column "Hometown Legends" for the prefectural news magazine Kensei Nara.
Published on the 1300th anniversary of Empress Gemmei's establishment of Heijo-kyo as the capital at the beginning of the Nara Period, "Legends of Nara" contains 124 tales of history, legend and culture collected from Kenji Inui's serialized stories. Illustrated with artwork by Isao Takechi, which accompanied the original newspaper articles, the stories are of emperors and empresses, ordinary people and gods, success and failure, rebellion and war. Nara and its citizens are traced from pre-history to the 20th century.
The book opens with a cautionary tale. During the Yamato Period (300-710), all people over 60 years of age were banished to die on Mount Yoshino, the vain feudal lord disliking the appearance of old people. Soon after the declaration, a foreigner arrived to test the intelligence of Japan's inhabitants and asked them to solve three riddles. The inhabitants of Yamato could not do so and had to turn to their abandoned parents for help. Tales of wisdom and charity, deer and eels, tax officials and tax dodging, piety and philosophy follow this moral story, most containing a lesson or a warning. There are also potted biographies of gods, priests, and ordinary people who have experienced minor miracles, awakenings, devoutness, or love.