Chisokuin Temple is the pagoda temple of Todaiji Temple and is said to have been founded in 890 by Zen priest Takao Ju. It later fell into disrepair, but was rebuilt in 1250 by Todaiji's Betsudo, Teicho Hoin, and played an important role as a research center for the Hosso sect of Buddhism. The present main hall was rebuilt in 1863. The principal image, a standing wooden Jizo Bosatsu (Important Cultural Property), is a beautiful Buddhist statue built in the Kamakura period and is known as “Bunnyo Jizo. The name “Jizo” comes from a legend that a daughter of Fujiwara no Yukitaka, who devoted herself to the reconstruction of Todaiji Temple after it was destroyed by fire during the burning of the southern capital in the late Heian Period, prayed to Jizo Bosatsu to learn the news of her deceased father. This standing statue of Jizo Bosatsu is on special display at the Todaiji Museum every year around the Jizokai on July 24. Chisokuin is also famous as the site where the original tree of the “Nara no Yaezakura” (double-flowered cherry tree) was found. This cherry tree was designated as a national natural monument in 1923 and is the flower of Nara Prefecture and Nara City. The original tree is now dead, but its descendants are planted in the precincts of the temple, and usually bloom their pretty flowers in early May around the Golden Week holidays.