Emperor Shōmu donated a treasure tower and a rice field to the temple. When Kōbō Daishi was studying the gumonjihō here a five-handed sword fell from the sky hence it was also called the 5 sword temple.

There are more than 1500 carvings of Amida Buddha and his attendants in the rock wall behind the temple. Also carved in the wall are images of stupas and the words Namu Amida Butsu. Some say they were carved by Ippen Shōnin in the 13th century (Readicker-Henderson says most of them were carved by Kōbō Daishi) but the priest says that most date from between the 13th and the 15th centuries.

Kōbō Daishi is said to have come here frequently from the time he was seven until he was thirteen, at which time he started to wander farther from home. There is a cave above the hondō called the Shishi no Gankutsu (Lion's Cave) where he came to meditate.

This temple is probably attributed with more miraculous cures that any other on the pilgrimage. There are piles of crutches, artificial limbs, and medical equipment outside the hondō, all dedicated to Kannon by people whose handicap has been cured.

Before this pilgrimage came into existence as a whole, Temples 71 through 77 constituted a short pilgrimage of their own. Apparently many people wanted to inter the ashes of their loved ones here on this mountain. On their way here they would stop at each of the temples from what are now called 71 through 76. As this whole pilgrimage began to take shape, though, this 7 temple pilgrimage, like the 10 temple pilgrimage from Temples 1 to 10, was incorporated into the (now) 88 temple route.

At no other temple can you get a better view of the alter in the hondō. Pilgrims are invited into the hondō to view it while kneeling in front in prayer.

Miyata says, "One never forgets the first impression of this temple, a dark and foggy place surrounded with thick verdant trees, steep bluffs, and various aged tombs."

Starr notes that the honzon is by Gyōgi.