Ōya-ji — Ōya Kannon

photo by Abasaa · Public domain

photo by tak1701d · CC BY-SA 3.0

The Peace Kannon, 27 m, was carved by hand into the rock between 1948 and 1954.

The temple is built inside and around a cave in the Ōya tuff rock, with ten Buddha statues carved directly into the rock face; the main one, a Thousand-Armed Kannon, is traditionally attributed to Kōbō Daishi. Outside, on the hill, the Peace Kannon statue (平和観音) is 27 metres tall: local stonemasons carved it by hand between 1948 and 1954, in memory of the war dead and as a vow of peace.

The Ōya rock-cut statues are among the oldest Buddhist stone carvings in Japan; in 1954 they were designated a Special Historic Site (特別史跡) and in 1961 a national Important Cultural Property (重要文化財). The temple is in the same neighbourhood as the Ōya underground quarry, dug to extract the building stone of the same name, but it is a separate site with its own religious history, centuries older than the industrial exploitation of the rock.

ℹ️ Summer (April–September) 8:30–16:30, winter (October–March) 9:00–16:30, last entry 20 minutes before closing. Closed on Thursdays (open if it is a public holiday) and from 26 to 31 December. Tickets: adults 500 yen, junior high 200 yen, elementary school 100 yen. You may not photograph the statues inside the cave.

🚉 大谷観音前 · 2 min walk

Sources: ooyaji.jp

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