Kanchiin is a separate head temple of the Toji Shingon sect and one of the Toji's pagoda temples. Its origins date back to the Kamakura period, when Hōhō Go-Uda planned a residence for To-ji temple priests, and it was founded around 1359 during the Nanbōchō period by a learned monk, Gōbō. Kenpo, a disciple of Goho, moved five statues of the Great Void Storehouse Bodhisattva from Anshoji Temple in Yamashina and enshrined them as the principal images of the temple. These statues are now designated as Important Cultural Properties. Kanchi-in Temple has played an important role as the center of Shingon Buddhism, producing many learned monks and collecting and preserving more than 15,000 items of esoteric Buddhist sacred texts as the Kangakuin Temple of To-ji Temple. During the Edo period, the temple was positioned as the Kangakuin for the entire Shingon sect as well as To-ji Temple. Within the precincts of the temple is the Kyakuden, a national treasure that was rebuilt in 1605. The Kyakuden is a typical Momoyama-era shoin-style building, and inside are sliding door paintings of “Eagle” and “Bamboo Forest,” said to have been painted by Miyamoto Musashi, a famous swordsman of the two swordsmanship styles. The garden is also one of the highlights. In the front yard of the guest house, there is a dry landscape garden called “Chosha no Niwa”. This garden was created in 2017 as a project to commemorate the 1200th anniversary of the founding of the Rikkyo sect of Shingon Buddhism, and is characterized by a hillock planted with red pine trees from Oki Island and a hewn stone bridge. There is also the “Shiho Shomen-no-niwa,” a garden said to have been created in the Muromachi period, which expresses the flow of a river with chestnut stones and leads to the “Chosha-no-niwa”. In addition, there is an open-air garden and a tsuboniwa garden with a tea ceremony room “Kaede Senkan,” offering tranquility and beauty to visitors.