Ōya-ji Temple

{{Infobox religious building | name = Ōya-dera | native_name = 大谷寺 | image = Utsunomiya Oya-ji Temple.JPG | image_size = 300 | alt = | caption = Ōya-dera Kannon-do | map_type = Japan Tochigi Prefecture#Japan | relief = 1 | location = 1198 Ōya-machi, Utsunomiya-shi, Tochigi-ken | coordinates = | religious_affiliation = Buddhist | rite = Tendai | deity = Senjū Kannon Bosatsu ( Sahasrabhūja) | country = Japan | functional_status = functional | website = | founded_by = Kūkai | year_completed = c.810 AD | footnotes = } }} is a Buddhist temple located in the city of Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, in northern Kantō region of Japan. The temple is famous for its bas-relief carvings on a cliff face. It belongs to the Tendai sect and its honzon is a statue of Senjū Kannon Bosatsu (Sahasrabhūja). The temple's full name is Tenkai-zan Jodo-in Ōya-ji (天開山 浄土院 大谷寺).The temple is the 19th stop on the Bandō Sanjūsankasho pilgrimage route.

==History== The history and foundation of the temple is uncertain, but it appears to date from the late Nara period to early Heian period. The temple is located in a valley which contains the ruins of a Jōmon period settlement. According to the temple's own legend, it was founded by Kūkai in 810 AD after he returned from Tang dynasty China. The honzon image of Senjū Kannon Bosatsu is approximately 4.5 meters tall and was completed before the end of the Heian period. The temple became part of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho route in the Kamakura period. It was under the protection of the powerful Utsunomiya Futaarayama Jinja and the Utsunomiya clan through the Muromachi period. The temple went into decline after the destruction of the Utsunomiya clan by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but was revived under the sponsorship of the Okudaira clan, who became daimyō of Utsunomiya Domain in the early Edo period. The temple was rebuilt by Kamehime, the eldest daughter of Shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu, with the assistance of Tenkai as a resting place between Edo and the Shrines and Temples of Nikkō. 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.