Honganji Sakai Betsuin was originally built by Yu, the fourth son of Yoshiuji Ashikaga (1189-1254), who became a devotee of Kakunyo, the third head of Honganji Temple. In 1476, the fifth head of the temple, Doken, invited the eighth head of Honganji, Rennyo, to build Shinsho-in. The current main hall was rebuilt in 1825 and is said to be the largest wooden building still in existence in Sakai City. For 10 years from 1871 to 1881 (1871-1881), due to the abolition of feudal domains and the establishment of prefectures, the main hall and land within the precincts served as the Sakai Prefectural Office. For this reason, Betsuin has been designated as a historic site by Osaka Prefecture as the ``Sakai Prefectural Office Ruins.'' In the precincts, there is a monument to the poet Akiko Yosano from Sakai, as well as a gigantic ginkgo tree with a height of 20m and a trunk circumference of 3.65m, whose roots seem to tell the story of the temple's history.