After Tokugawa Ieyasu's death in 1616, his tenth son Tokugawa Yorinobu, founding lord of the Kishu domain, built this Toshogu in 1621 to enshrine his father. Alongside the Toshogu shrines of Nikko and Kunozan, it is one of the major shrines dedicated to Ieyasu. The Kishu Tokugawa line later produced Shogun Yoshimune, carrying on Ieyasu's bloodline.