Around a half-century after Heijo (present-day Nara) became Japan's capital in 710, Minister of the Left Fujiwara no Nagate constructed Kasuga Grand Shrine at the behest of Empress Shotoku in 768. The shrine complex went up at the foot of the sacred Mount Mikasa, the closest mountain in the direction of the rising sun.
Subsequently, four Shinto deities were transferred to the buildings that became Kasuga's main sanctuary, the history of which is traced through artworks currently on show at the Nara National Museum. One deity, Takemikazuchi no Mikoto, traveled from the province of Hitachi on a sacred white deer, while Futsunushi no Mikoto relocated from Shimosa. Amenokoyane no Mikoto, the ancestral deity of the Nakatomi clan from which the Fujiwara family came from, was joined by his consort, Himegami of the province of Kawachi, rounding out the grouping enshrined in the east of the Heijo capital.
The spiritual assemblage led to Kasuga Grand Shrine being designated one of the three guardian shrines of the Imperial court along with the Grand Shrines of Ise (the royal family's ancestral shrines) and Iwashimizu Hachimangu Shrine.