During the Nara period, Gangō-ji was a major establishment, similar in size to Tōdai-ji, and was the main seminary for both the Sanron and the Hosso sects.

Newer Buddhist sects, such as Tendai and Shingon had supplanted Sanron and Hosso, and with the collapse of the Ritsuryō system in the mid-Heian period (10th to 11th centuries), the temple lost control of the estates on which it depended for support.

According to a record from 1246, the fourth and fifth stories of the five-story pagoda and its spire had been lost by this time, and the Great South Gate and bell tower had been severely damaged.

In 1451, during the Muromachi period, a peasant uprising set the Small Pagoda Compound on fire, and the flames spread to the entire temple.

The Chiko Mandara is a mandala depicting the Pure Land with Amida Nyorai in the center, drawn by the Nara period scholar-monk Chiko, which from the late Heian period began to attract worshippers with the popularity of the idea of the end of the world and the rise of the Amida Pure Land faith.

[1] This building, along with the "Zen room" are now designated National Treasures[2] [3]and is collectively registered as a World Heritage Site as part of the “Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara“.

[4] The Gangō-ji East Pagoda ruins (元興寺塔跡) are located in the Shiba Araya-chō neighborhood the "old town" area of Naramachi in the city of Nara.

Based on jewels, copper coins, altar implements unearthed around the central stone during an archaeological excavation in 1927, it is estimated that the pagoda was constructed in the late 8th century, about 50 years after the capital was moved to Heijō-kyō.

According to an article from 834 in the Shoku Nihon Kōki, it was located to the southwest of the main Gangō-ji temple complex, symmetrically positioned opposite the larger East Pagoda complex, and consisted of a small pagoda with a prayer hall to the south, three other buildings with a cypress bark roof, and a gate.

His poem may perhaps bemoan his undervalued condition—and yet, in a modest way, his words transport contemporary readers momentarily back to share his quiet, 8th century perspective: