Shinganji Temple was founded in the late Azuchi-Momoyama period during the Bunroku era under Toyotomi Hideyoshi. However, it was demolished after the Winter Siege of Osaka and rebuilt in 1622 with the assistance of the Unno clan, ancestors of the Sanada clan, on the site of their Osaka Winter Siege camp (Sanadamaru) as a memorial for Sanada Yukimura and his son, Daisuke. The area around Shinganji Temple is where the famous general Sanada Yukimura (also known as Sanada Saemonsa Toyotomi Nobushige) built a fort called Sanadamaru southeast of Osaka Castle on the Kamimachi Plateau, where Toyotomi forces were left vulnerable, and used it to defend against the enemy during the Winter Siege. Furthermore, the temple gained further attention after the involvement of several members of the Kyoto Patrol Division, including Katsura Sanosuke, Watanabe Kichitaro, and Takahashi Yasujiro, in the attack on Omiya House in Kawaramachi, Kyoto, in 1867, in which Sakamoto Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro were assassinated. Members of the Mimawarigumi also participated in the Battle of Toba-Fushimi and were killed in action. They were buried at Shinganji Temple, where their graves still remain.