The temple is the headquarters of the Shokokuji school of the Rinzai sect of Buddhism, which was founded by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408), the third shogun of the Muromachi Shogunate.
The garden is also the site of the Hosokawabyo hall, where a wooden sitting statue of Hosokawa Katsumoto, a high-ranking official of the Muromachi Shogunate, and a Buddhist “ihai” memorial ...
a scoundrel whose lethal sword skills place him at the tip of the spear in a deadly uprising against the corrupt Shogunate and its army, led by former friend-turned-archrival, Doken (Tsutsumi).