In 723, Taichō Daishi — the monk who opened Mt. Hakusan and one of the founding figures of Japanese mountain asceticism — visited Koshigoe and founded Hozenji, enshrining an Eleven-Faced Kannon he revered. Known as 'Koshi no Daitoku' (Great Virtue of Echizen), he is said to have established sacred sites from Hokuriku to the Kanto region. The temple's mountain name, Taichōzan, has borne his name for over 1,300 years.

The seated wooden Eleven-Faced Kannon at Hozenji is attributed to Gyoki (668–749), the Nara-period monk revered as a 'Bodhisattva' for helping build the Great Buddha at Todaiji and for his social works — bridges, reservoirs, and roads — on behalf of ordinary people. That a sculpture attributed to Gyoki's hands survives in Koshigoe is testimony to how broadly the Buddhism of Nara reached across early Japan.