During Japan's Meiji era persecution of Buddhism, this temple survived by claiming its main deity was Buddhist (Dakini-Shinten) rather than Shinto, a clever religious strategy that allowed it to thrive.

At the Yuzu Inari shrine here, visitors receive a 10-yen coin believed to bring financial luck; the tradition is to return a year later with added interest as gratitude if the wish comes true.

The temple's entrance features a massive 4.5-meter wooden door carved from a single slab, guarded by fierce Buddhist Nio figures that greet visitors before they encounter the thousand red-bibbed fox statues inside.

A famed Edo-period magistrate named Ooka Echizen enshrined this temple's deity in his own home before it moved to Akasaka in 1887, making it one of Japan's rare temples born from a samurai's private devotion.