The protection extended to Kasuga's deer was, for long stretches of Japanese history, a matter of formal law rather than informal custom alone: during the Edo period the killing of one of the sacred deer was classed as a capital offense, and local accounts describe entire neighborhoods being held collectively responsible if a deer was found dead within their boundary, incentivizing residents to actively guard the animals rather than merely tolerate them. This legal severity has softened considerably in the modern period, and Nara's deer today, protected instead as a National Natural Treasure since 1957, roam freely through the city's parks and streets in a semi wild state, closely habituated to the tourists who feed them specially sold rice crackers, shika senbei, sold by vendors throughout the park; a number of the deer have learned to bow toward visitors before receiving a cracker, a learned behavior widely reported as a charming echo of the animals' sacred status rather than any deliberate religious training.
The shrine's own art and ritual continue to commemorate the deer's founding role, and Kasuga Taisha's medieval illustrated scroll, the Kasuga Gongen Genki, depicts the deer repeatedly as visible signs of the kami's active presence among worshippers, a visual tradition that has helped keep the deer legend central to the shrine's identity for well over a millennium.