Daisen-ji

Daisen, from early times, was considered a sacred mountain by practitioners of Koshintō, an early form of the Shinto religion.[2] By the 7th century the area became a center of shugendō, a syncretic religion which incorporated aspects Koshintō, Japanese folk animism and shamanism, Taoism and esoteric Buddhism of the Shingon Mikkyō and the Tendai sects.[3] After the 9th century, this temple came under the control of the Tendai Buddhist sect as one of the most important of its centers in this region. The head monk, or Zashu, of this temple had been sent from the Enryaku-ji in Kyoto, the headquarters of Tendai sect.

Daisen-ji was greatly affected by the anti-Buddhist haibutsu kishaku movement (1868-c.1874) after the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Daisen-ji was closed in 1875. The Daichimyōkogen hall became the Ōgamiyama Shrine, and the Shinto-related assets of Daisen-ji were removed and transferred to the shrine. Daisen-ji was allowed to reopen in 1903.[1] In 1928 the Dainichi-dō was destroyed by fire. Numerous cultural treasures were lost in the fire, notably the Daisen-ji engi emaki, the illustrated scrolls of the history of the temple. The Dainichi-dō was reconstructed in 1951.[2]