In 1571, during the Sengoku period, in the Siege of Mount Hiei, the daimyō Oda Nobunaga, decided to challenge the power of the warrior monks of the Tendai sect, and destroyed the sect's headquarters at Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei, above Kyoto. Soon after, a samurai in the service of Nobunaga, Gorōzaemon, burns Saimyō-ji; Only the main building, the three-storey pagoda and the wooden entrance door to the temple escaped the ravages of the fire.