Entoku-in is where Kitanomandokoro Nene, the principal wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, lived for the final 19 years of her life after his death. In 1605, she relocated the makeup hall (keshō goten) of Fushimi Castle, Hideyoshi's own castle, to this site as her residence; massive Momoyama-era rocks brought from Fushimi Castle still remain in the north garden today.

Kitanomandokoro Nene (Kodaiin), principal wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, moved into this residence in 1605 — relocating the Cosmetics Hall of Fushimi Castle here — and spent her final nineteen years until her death at age 77 in 1624. While praying for Hideyoshi's soul at the adjacent Kodaiji, she lived out a quiet retirement in a Kyoto now under Tokugawa rule. The North Garden, a Momoyama dry landscape set with massive rocks from Fushimi Castle, is a national Place of Scenic Beauty that still conveys the garden Nene once gazed upon.