Negoroji Temple is located in Iwato City, Wakayama Prefecture.  Kakuban, a priest of Koyasan in the latter half of the Heian period, who was said to be a eminent priest since Kukai, built a hall Temple on Koyasan.  With the faith of Emperor Toba, he tried to rebuild the belief of Koyasan, which had corrupted at that time, and to revive the doctrine of Kukai, the founder of the sect.        However, the priests of Koyasan rebelled against this, and an incident occurred in which the temple of Kakuban Sect was burned down by the opposition in Koyasan.  In the wake of this incident, Kakuban Sect went down Koyasan and moved to the current location of Negoroji Temple.  At the end of the Muromachi period, it became a large temple with 2,700 priest’s houses  and a large military group of more than 10,000 monk soldiers called Negoro-shu.  After then they  built a friendly relationship by cooperating with Nobunaga Oda.  Negoro-shu has become a large armed group that appears in history textbooks, but after that they also confronted Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and finally, due to Hideyoshi’s attack against Saika people (Kishuu conquest), the temple was left with several buildings such as Daishido and Oto, but everything else was burnt down.

和歌山県岩戸市に根来寺があります。平安時代後期の高野山の僧で空海以来の学僧と言われた覚鑁が高野山に一堂を建て、鳥羽天皇の帰依もあって、当時堕落していた高野山の信仰を建て直し、宗祖・空海の教義を復興しようと努めました。しかし高野山内の衆徒はこれに反発し、覚鑁一門の寺院が高野山内の反対勢力により焼き討ちされるという事件が発生しました。この事件をきっかけに覚鑁一門は高野山を下りて、現在の根来寺の地に拠点を移しました。室町時代末期には、坊舎2700を数え、根来衆と呼ばれる僧兵一万余の一大軍事集団を擁した大寺院になり、種子島から伝来したばかりの火縄銃の鉄砲隊をいち早く設け、石山合戦には織田信長に協力するなど友好関係を築きました。根来衆は歴史教科書にものる一大武力集団になりましたが、その後豊臣秀吉とも対立し、最後には、秀吉の雑賀攻め(紀州征伐)によって、大師堂、大塔など数棟を残して寺は焼け落ちました。