Daisen, from early times, was considered a sacred mountain by practitioners of Koshintō, an early form of the Shinto religion. 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. 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.