Ganjo-ji Temple was built in 771. It was given the honorific prefix “Houousan” and originally belonged to the Rinzai sect, but it was later converted to a Soto sect temple.
As the family temple of Takeda Nobuyoshi, founder of the Kai Takeda Clan, Ganjo-ji possesses a collection of cultural properties. They include a wooden Amida Nyorai image with two flanking gods said to be donated by Nobuyoshi, a Five Element Pagoda of the early Kamakura Period (1185–1333) marking Nobuyoshi’s grave, and an Amida Triad image.
The wooden Amida Nyorai image with two flanking gods is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property, believed to date back to the period from the end of the Heian Period (794–1185) to the early Kamakura Period (1185–1333). There are seven Amida Nyorai images of the same period in Yamanashi Prefecture. Four of these are triad images, and the largest is the image enshrined at Ganjo-ji.