Mount Seppiko is a place for the ascetic practices of Shugendō in this region. According to the official history of the Kaya Jinja, a Shinto shrine in the middle of the mountain, the shrine was established in the 7th century in the time of Empress Suiko. Mount Seppiko also is considered to be developed for Shugensha, practitioners of Shugendō. Kaya Jinja was originally a typical example of Shinbutsu shūgō, literally fusion of practices from both Shinto and Buddhism, and had a Buddhist temple, Seppiko-san Kongo Chingo-ji, just beside the Shinto shrine. However, the temple was abolished by the Shinbutsu Bunri Order, literally Shinto-Buddhism-separation Order of the Meiji Government in 1868.