Shugendo is a religion rooted in ancient Japanese mountain worship, combined with elements of Buddhism, Shinto, Onmyodo, and other beliefs. The religion was propagated by practitioners known as yamabushi (mountain priests).

Shugendo then came to organized into two schools, Tozan-ha and Honzan-ha from the 17th century onward, as yamabushi settled in towns and farming villages. The Seigakuin belonged to the Tozan school, headed by Sambo-in Temple, and was a center of Shugendo activity throughout the Edo period (17th to19th century).

Japan’s Meiji government banned the practice of Shugendo in 1872, but the Seigakuin dojo remained closely associated with the beliefs of the people of Sakai and the surrounding area, and continued in operation until the 1960s.

The Seigakuin also operated a terakoya school (Seikodo) from the late Edo period until 1872. Today, the Tenjin-style floor desks used by children, and textbooks such as “Twelve Months of Writing,” “Sakai Town Names,” “An Exhaustive Tour of Japan,” “Women’s Writing,” and “Famous Places of Kyoto” have been preserved until today.

In the late Edo period, there were about twenty terakoya schools in Sakai, including Seikodo, for the education of the children of merchants and tradesmen, but it is very rare for the actual building to have survived, making it very precious.