It lies between two Kita-Kamakura landmarks, the entrance of the Kamegayatsu Pass and Kenchō-ji, the oldest Zen monastery in Japan.

Chōju-ji is one of two bodaiji (菩提寺), or funeral temples, dedicated to Ashikaga Takauji, founder of the dynasty of shōguns that carries his name.

[3] It is likely therefore that the whole story of its foundation as Takauji's bodhi temple was simply a ruse by his son Motouji to symbolically tie rebellious Kamakura to the founder of the new dynasty of shōguns.

[3] Because it had such deep ties with the Ashikaga who had again usurped the power Emperor Go-Daigo had briefly managed to recover during the Kenmu Restoration, Chōju-ji for a long time faced the open hostility of the Imperial House.

In the front garden can be found a yagura containing Ashikaga Takauji's grave (as already mentioned, there is another in Kyoto's Tōji-in) and a great gorintō erected in his memory.