[2] The temple currently belongs to the Tendai school of Japanese Buddhism, and its main image is a hibutsu statue of Fudō-myōō.

According to the temple legend, Ryūsen-ji was built in 808 by Ennin to enshrine a statue of Fudō-myōō, while he was on a journey from Shimotsuke province to Mount Hiei.

Ryūsen-ji is famed as the burial place of the romantic couple Hirai Gonpachi (平井権八) and Komurasaki (小紫), whose story was told in numerous Kabuki plays and in A.B.

[5] The temple is also an important site for the friendship between Filipino national hero Jose Rizal and Seiko Usui (Osei-san), a daughter of a samurai.

The cemetery of this chapel also has the grave of Aoki Konyō (1698-1769) was a Confucian scholar in the middle of the Edo period remembered as the person who popularized the cultivation of sweet potatoes in Japan.