is a

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhism, Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat, khurul and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in B ...

of the

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Dharma Flower School (天台法華宗, ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just ''Hokkeshū''), is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition with significant esoteric elements that was officially established in Japan in 806 by t ...

sect in the city of

Utsunomiya is the capital and largest city of Tochigi Prefecture in the northern Kantō region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 513,584, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Utsunomiya is famous for its ''gyoza'' ...

Tochigi Prefecture is a landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Tochigi Prefecture has a population of 1,897,649 (1 June 2023) and has a geographic area of 6,408 Square kilometre, km2 (2,474 Square mile, sq mi ...

, in northern

Kantō region The is a geography, geographical region of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures of Japan, prefectures: Chiba Prefecture, Chiba, Gunma Prefe ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The temple is famous for its bas-relief carvings on a cliff face. The ''

honzon , sometimes referred to as a Gohonzon ( or ), is the enshrined main image or principal deity in Japanese Buddhism. The buddha, bodhisattva, or mandala image is located in either a temple or a household butsudan. The image can be either a statue ...

'' of the temple is a

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

stone statue of Senjū Kannon. The temple is 19th stop on the Bandō Sanjūsankasho pilgrimage route of 33 temples sacred to Kannon in the Kantō region.

History

The history and foundation of the temple is uncertain, but it appears to date from the late

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...

to early

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

. The temple is located in a valley which contains the ruins of a

Jōmon period In Japanese history, the is the time between , during which Japan was inhabited by the Jōmon people, a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united by a common culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism an ...

settlement. According to the temple's own legend, it was founded by

Kūkai , born posthumously called , was a Japanese Buddhist monk, calligrapher, and poet who founded the Vajrayana, esoteric Shingon Buddhism, Shingon school of Buddhism. He travelled to China, where he studied Tangmi (Chinese Vajrayana Buddhism) und ...

in 810 AD after he returned from

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

China. The temple became part of the ''Bandō Sanjūsankasho'' route in the

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

. It was under the protection of the powerful Utsunomiya Futaarayama Jinja and the Utsunomiya clan through the

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

. The temple was rebuilt in the early

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

Kamehime Kamehime (, 27 July 1560 – 1 August 1625) was the eldest daughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, with his first wife, Lady Tsukiyama. She was the wife of Okudaira Nobumasa. She is primaril ...

, the eldest daughter of

Shōgun , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

, with the assistance of

Tenkai was an influential Japanese Tendai Buddhist monk of the Azuchi-Momoyama and early Edo periods. He achieved the rank of ''Daisōjō'', the highest rank of the Tendai priesthood and was an influential advisor to various Shoguns, including To ...

as a resting place between

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

and the

Shrines and Temples of Nikkō The UNESCO World Heritage Site Shrines and Temples of Nikkō encompasses 103 buildings or structures and the natural setting around them. It is located in Nikkō, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. The buildings belong to two Shinto shrines ( Futarasan Shr ...

. The temple has burned down on several occasions, and most of its documentary history has been lost. Its precincts were excavated in 1965, and Buddha statues from the Kamakura period, votive stones dated 1363, and a copper bowl dated 1551 were found.

Ōya Stone Buddhas

The is a set of ten bas-relief carvings of various Buddhist divinities located on a cliff at Ōya-dera. These carvings were designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1926 and reclassified as a Special National Historic Site in 1954. The carvings are located on the wall of a large natural cave on the southwestern side of a hill made of

Ōya stone Oya is a divinity found in Yoruba religion, Santeria and other belief systems. Oya or OYA may also refer to: Places * Øya, a neighborhood in Trondheim, Norway * Oya, Sarawak, a town in Malaysia * Oya River, a river in Malaysia * Ōya Station (N ...

called Otomeyama. The wall is divided into four large and small quadrants. In the first quadrant, facing west, is a statue of Senjū Kannon with a height of four meters. This is the ''

'' image of the temple. According to temple legend, the statue was carved by Kūkai himself, and was once covered by

lacquer Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity. Asian lacquerware, which may be c ...

and

gold leaf upA gold nugget of 5 mm (0.2 in) in diameter (bottom) can be expanded through hammering into a gold foil of about 0.5 m2 (5.4 sq ft). The Japan.html" ;"title="Toi gold mine museum, Japan">Toi gold mine museum, Japan. Gold leaf is gold that has ...

. In the second quadrant is a sitting image of Shaka Nyōrai with a height of 3.5 meters, flanked to the left and right by Monju Bosatsu and Fugen Bostasu. The statue in the third quadrant a sitting Yakushi Nyōrai with a height of 1.2 meters, flanked by Nikkō Bosatsu and

Gakkō Bosatsu Candraprabha (lit. 'Moonlight', zh, 月光菩薩, link=no; pinyin: ''Yuèguāng Púsà''; Rōmaji: ''Gakkō or Gekkō Bosatsu'') is a bodhisattva often seen with Sūryaprabha, as the two siblings serve Bhaiṣajyaguru. Statues of Candrapr ...

. The fourth quadrant is believed to be a seated Amida Nyōrai with a height of 2.6 meters, flanked by status of

Kannon Bosatsu Guanyin () is a common Chinese name of the bodhisattva associated with Karuṇā, compassion known as Avalokiteśvara (). Guanyin is short for Guanshiyin, which means " he One WhoPerceives the Sounds of the World". Originally regarded as m ...

and Seishi Bosatsu. In addition, several sitting images depicted on the wall on the right side of the Kannon statue, and a statue of a Buddha above. The statues of Senjū Kannon and Yakushi Nyōrai are believed to date from the early

, with the statue of Shaka Nyōrai from the late Heian period, and the remaining statues from the late Heian to early

. These statues are regarded as having extremely high artistic and academic value, along with the more famous Usuki Stone Buddhas in

Oita Prefecture Oita often refers to: * Ōita Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan *Ōita (city), the capital of the prefecture Oita or Ōita may also refer to: Places * Ōita District, Ōita, a former district in Ōita Prefecture, Japan *Ōita Stadium, a multi-use stadi ...

, and the carvings were also designated an

Important Cultural Property of Japan An The term is often shortened into just is an item officially classified as Tangible Cultural Property by the Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) and judged to be o ...

in 1986. The temple complex also includes a small museum. Across from the temple is an

quarry that has been converted into a park. The park features a massive statue of Kannon, called the created after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

References

External links

Tochichi Prefecture Department of Education home page

Oya-dera official home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oya-ji Utsunomiya Special Historic Sites Tendai temples History of Tochigi Prefecture Shimotsuke Province Buddhist temples in Tochigi Prefecture Important Cultural Properties of Japan Tochigi Prefecture designated tangible cultural property

History

Ōya Stone Buddhas

See also

References

External links