According to temple tradition, when Kukai opened Mount Yudono as a sacred site in 807, he founded Dainichibou at the entrance to the mountain. As the central setting for traditions linking Kukai to Yudono, the temple has long been venerated as the foundational ground of Yudono Shingon Buddhism.

The third Tokugawa shogun Iemitsu was deeply connected to Dainichibou through his wet nurse Kasuga no Tsubone. The three-bay-square hall donated by Kasuga in 1640 housed a principal image enshrined to pray for Iemitsu's martial fortune, and from then on Dainichibou received protection as a prayer temple of the Tokugawa house. Under Tokugawa patronage it flourished as a key center of Yudono worship in northeastern Japan.

In 1640, Kasuga no Tsubone — wet nurse of Tokugawa Iemitsu and the most powerful woman in the inner quarters of Edo Castle — donated a three-bay-square hall to Dainichibou to pray for Iemitsu's recovery and martial fortune. The donation by such a central figure of the Edo shogunate stands as enduring evidence of the deep reverence in which the temple was held even from distant Edo.