Taiko-an is a temple of the Rinzai sect and a sub-temple of Tofukuji Temple. Destroyed by fire during the Onin war in the 15th century, the temple lay waste until it was restored in 1599 by the warrior priest Ankokuji Ekei.

Plans for the decisive Sekigahara battle of 1600 were reputedly drawn in the Tea room within the Guest Hall. Jizo Hall houses a statue of the divinity Jizo. Numerous love letters to Ono-no-Komachi, a renowned beautiful woman of the Heian court were found inside the Jizo Statue.

Ono no Komachi was a famous Japanese waka poet, one of the Rokkasen—the Six best Waka poets of the early Heian period. She was noted as a rare beauty; Komachi is a symbol of a beautiful woman in Japan. She also figures among the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals.
As a poet, Komachi specialized in erotic love themes, expressed in complex poems. Most of her waka are about anxiety, solitude or passionate love. She is the only female poet referred to in the preface of the Kokin Wakashū, which describes her style as "containing naivety in old style but also delicacy".
There are legends about Komachi in love. The most famous is a story about her relationship with Fukakusa no Shosho, a high-ranking courtier. Komachi promised that if he visited her continuously for a hundred nights, then she would become his lover. Fukakusa no Shosho visited her every night, but failed once towards the end. Despairing, he fell ill and subsequently died. When Komachi learned of his death she was overcome with sadness.

Ono no Komachi Poem:

Though I go to you
ceaselessly along dream paths,
the sum of those trysts
is less than a single glimpse
granted in the waking world.

The poem appears as No. 658 in the Kokin Wakashu, an old anthology of poems from the 12th century. Komachi was a classic even at that time: she lived in the 9th century.

夢ぢには
あしもやすめず
かよへども
うつつにひとめ
見しごとはあらず

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