This small temple, built in 1682, originally faced in the opposite direction, with its entrance on the main approach to Zuiganji, but it was rotated in the eighteenth century. Buddhist customs forbade women from entering parts of the temple grounds on certain days, but the Sanseido became popular with female worshippers who came to pray to Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion and mercy. Zuiganji’s abbot ordered Sanseido turned so that women could visit from a different route without violating Buddhist customs.
Sanseido is dedicated to Daruma, the fifth or sixth century Buddhist monk credited with bringing Zen teachings from India to China, to Sugawara no Michizane (845–903), a ninth-century Japanese scholar and poet, and to Kannon.