In the past, this temple was unified with the adjacent Kumano Nachi Taisha as a place for BuddhistShinto syncretic mountain asceticism, but it became an independent Tendai sect temple in the Meiji Period under the impact of the government order separating Buddhism and Shintoism. Nachisan Seiganto-ji was also the first temple on the “Saikokujunrei,” or pilgrimage to the 33 Kannon images in Western Japan, which began in 1161. In the Edo Period, many pilgrims visited Ise Jingu and completed the Kumano Sanzan pilgrimage and Saigokujunrei pilgrimage at the same time.
