It located on the old Nakasendō highway connecting Kyoto with the eastern provinces of Japan, and part of the precincts are a National Historic Site.

The shrine's own history (dated from 1384) alleges that it was founded in the first year of the reign of the semi-legendary Emperor Kōrei.

His son, Prince Kibitsuhiko, had a palace at this site, and that during the reign of Emperor Ōjin, the famed general Yamato Takeru constructed a shrine to his dead wife, Ototachibana-hime.

The name "Oiso-no-mori" was used extensively in the Heian period as a pillow word in poetry, appearing (for example) in the Songs to Make the Dust Dance on the Beams anthology of 1180 AD.

The location of the forest on the Tōkaidō and Nakasendō made it a tourist attraction, and it appears in travel guides even from the Kamakura period.