Early history Mount Daisen, from early times, was considered a
sacred mountain by practitioners of
Koshintō, an early form of the
Shinto religion. The details of the temple's foundation is unknown, but according to temple legend, the
kuni no miyatsuko of
Hōki Province, named "Toshikata" shot a deer with his bow on the slopes of the sacred mountain. Repenting for his act, he became a priest and took the name of Koren Shonin in 718 AD, and constructed a small hut to worship Jizo Bosatsu. After the 9th century, this temple came under the control of the
Tendai sect and grew to become one of the most important of its centers in the
Chugoku region. The head monk, or
Zashu, of this temple was dispatched from
Enryaku-ji, the headquarters of Tendai sect, and after serving a term here, returned to
Mount Hiei and was promoted. Pilgrimage routes to the temple developed to the southern coast from the late
Heian period and the temple was protected by local warlords such as the
Amago clan and the
Mōri clan in the
Sengoku period. under the
Tokugawa shogunate in the
Edo period, the temple controlled estates with a
kokudaka of 3000
koku and was independent of
Tottori Domain, which controlled the remainder of Hōki Province.
Modern history 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. 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. ==Cultural Properties==