Dogan-ji Kannondo, also called Kogenji, houses the celebrated Eleven-Faced Kannon standing statue from the early Heian period, a National Treasure often called the supreme masterpiece of Japanese sculpture. Said to have been founded in 736 by the monk Taicho, the temple's image was hidden underground during Sengoku wars to protect it.

According to tradition, the temple was founded in 736 by the monk Taicho of Echizen Province, by imperial wish of Empress Gensho, in prayer for the cessation of an epidemic. Originally called Dogan-ji, the temple is believed to have enshrined its principal image, the Eleven-Faced Kannon standing sta…