The cult of Myōken is thought to have developed in China during the Tang period, when Taoist Big Dipper and pole star worship was adopted into Buddhism.

Legend states that when Yoshifumi and his nephew was about to lose a battle against Yoshifumi's elder brother Kunika (father of Taira no Sadamori) at the Someya River (染谷川, Someyagawa) in Kōzuke Province (modern Gunma Prefecture), they were rescued by Myōken, the deity of nearby Sokusai-ji (息災寺, modern Myōken-ji in Takasaki, Gunma).

[9][10][11] When the Meiji government enforced the separation of Shinto and Buddhism in the late 19th century, many shrines that venerated Buddhist figures or deities of mixed heritage either changed or associated their deities to ones found in classical Japanese mythology as written in texts such as the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki.

[12] According to tradition, the Buddhist temple Hokutosan Kongōju-ji (北斗山金剛授寺[a]) was founded in the thirteenth day of the ninth month of the year 1000 (Chōhō 2) by the monk Kakusan (覚算), a son of Taira no Tadatsune (the paternal grandson of Yoshifumi), who then became its first abbot (大僧正 daisōjō or 座主 zasu).

[3][10][14][15] In 1126 (Daiji 1), Tadatsune's great-great-grandson Taira no Tsuneshige transferred his clan's power base from Ōjī Castle in Kazusa Province (modern Ōji-chō, Midori-ku, Chiba City) to a new castle located about a kilometer south of Kongōju-ji, situated in a natural plateau known as Mount Inohana (modern Inohana, Chūō-ku).

During the transfer, the clan shrine to Myōken which enshrined the image supposedly brought by Yoshifumi from Sokusai-ji situated within the castle precincts was merged into the temple complex.

During the Genpei War (1180–1185), the Chiba clan, headed by Tsuneshige's son Tsunetane, chose to side with Minamoto no Yoritomo against Taira no Kiyomori.

[19] The shrine was destroyed a third time during the bombing of Chiba in 6-7 July, 1945 (Shōwa 20) in the closing stages of World War II.