Prior to the founding of Ishiyama-dera, this area was a quarry in the 660s during the reign of
Emperor Tenji. Furthermore, after the
Jinshin War in 672,
Prince Ōtomo was buried on the east side of the current site of the
pagoda. According to the "Ishiyama-dera Engi Emaki", at the request of
Emperor Shōmu,
Rōben (the founder and chief priest of
Tōdai-ji) enshrined a
Nyōirin Kannon statue, which was
Prince Shōtoku's personal Buddha, here in 747. For the construction of the Great Buddha of Tōdai-ji, Emperor Shōmu needed a large amount of gold to gild the statue's surface. He ordered Rōben to pray to
Mount Kinpu in
Yoshino for gold. As its name suggests, Mount Kinpu was believed to be a "mountain of gold." One day, Rōben had a dream in which
Zaō Gongen of Yoshino appeared to him and told him, "The gold of Mount Kinpu will be used to cover the earth in gold when
Miroku Bosatsu appears in this world (5.67 billion years from now) (so it cannot be used to gild the Great Buddha). South of the lake in
Shiga County,
Ōmi Province, is the land where Kannon Bodhisattva appears. Go there and pray." Following his dream, Rōben visited Ishiyama. Guided by an old man who was an incarnation of Hira Myōjin (also known as
Shirahige Myōjin), he placed the six-inch gilt bronze statue of Nyōirin Kannon, Prince Shōtoku's personal Buddha, on a huge rock and built a hut. Two years later, gold was discovered in
Mutsu Province, and the
era name was changed to
Tenpyō-shōhō. Although the miraculous power of Rōben's rituals was thus proven, for some reason the Nyōirin Kannon statue became stuck on the rock. Consequently, a hall was constructed to cover the statue, marking the beginning of the temple. According to documents from the
Shōsōin Repository, this Ishiyama site was originally a storage area for timber harvested from various locations, including
Kōka and
Takashima counties in Ōmi Province, in order to build Tōdai-ji. This legend also appears in other sources include the
Genkō Shakusho and the later
Shirahige Daimyōjin Engi Emaki (Illustrated Scroll of the Origins of Shirahige Daimyōjin) from 1705. According to the Shōsōin documents, beginning in 761, the Ishiyama-dera expanded, with staff, including Buddhist sculptors, dispatched from Tōdai-ji and construction of the temple was carried out as a national project and the Hora Palace of
Emperor Junnin and
Empress Kōken, was located nearby. A new principal image, a clay statue of Nyōirin Kannon was completed between 761 and 762, and the original image was placed inside. The temple's history through the
Heian period is unclear, but the temple changed from the
Kegon sect to
Shingon and became more closely affiliated with
Daigo-ji rather than Tōdai-ji. Jun'yu Naigu (890 - 953), the third abbot and grandson of
Sugawara no Michizane had a physical disability prevented him from sitting in the proper sitting position, so he devoted himself to his studies and left behind a voluminous body of writing. Many of his handwritten manuscripts remain at the temple, and are collectively designated as a
National Treasure (NT). Around this time, pilgrimages to Ishiyama became popular among court ladies, and are described in the works "
Kagerō Nikki" and "
Sarashina Nikki." Allegedly,
Murasaki Shikibu began writing
The Tale of Genji at Ishiyama-dera during a full moon night in August 1004. In commemoration, the temple maintains a Genji room featuring a life-size figure of Lady Murasaki and displays a statue in her honor. On 2 January 1078, the
Main Hall was partially burned down by lightning, damaging the clay statue of Nyōirin Kannon. In 1096, the present main hall (NT) was rebuilt, and a new seated Nyōirin Kannon statue (an
Important Cultural Property (ICP)) was enshrined. The East Gate,
Tahōtō Pagoda, and Shōnan-in Bishamon-dō Hall are weren built in the early
Kamakura period with donations from
Minamoto no Yoritomo. In February 1573, during the
Sengoku period, the temple sided with
Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the 15th
shōgun of the
Muromachi shogunate, and rebelled against
Oda Nobunaga. Several buildings at Ishiyama-dera were damaged during the subsequent battle and Nobunaga confiscated much of the temple's estates. After Nobunaga's death,
Toyotomi Hideyoshi returned some of the land to the temple in 1596. In 1613,
Tokugawa Ieyasu granted the temple 579
koku of estates for its upkeep. During the
Keichō era (1596–1615),
Yodo-dono restored the temple. Ishiyama-dera was spared the fires that burned the surrounding mountain, and as a result, many valuable cultural assets, including buildings, Buddhist statues, scriptures, and documents, have been preserved. The temple features as "The Autumn Moon at Ishiyama" ( ''
) in the Eight Views of Ōmi'' thematic series in art and literature; examples include
ukiyo-e prints by
Suzuki Harunobu in the 18th century and
Hiroshige in the 19th century. Ishiyamadera23n4272.jpg|Ishiyama-dera Wollastonite Ishiyamadera45n4272.jpg|Hondō (NT) Ishiyamadera02s5s3200.jpg|East Gate Ishiyamadera24n4272.jpg|Shōrō Ishiyamadera5474.JPG|Mikage-dō（Kaizan-dō） Omido - Ishiyamadera - Otsu, Shiga - DSC07486.JPG|Interior of Mikage-dō Ishiyamadera16n4272.jpg|Bishamon-dō Shrine above torii - Ishiyamadera - Otsu, Shiga - DSC07501.JPG|Sanju-hachi Gongen Honden Ishiyamadera13n4272.jpg|Daikokuten-dō Ishiyamadera05n3200.jpg|Tsukimi-tei Ishiyamadera rennyodo.jpg|Rennyō-dō Ishiyamadera27n4272.jpg| Hōkyōintō（the one in back is an ICP） Ishiyamadera5438.JPG|Murasaki Shikubu Memorial and Matsuo Basho poem The temple is about a 10-minute walk from
Ishiyamadera Station on the
Keihan Railway Ishiyama Sakamoto Line. ==Cultural Properties==