The Jodo-ji surrounded by manors of “Obe no sho” that Chogen developed and that belonged to the Todaiji Temple was constructed by Chogen. “The Jodo-ji Engi” is the hand scroll that shows a history of this temple. It was written in 1372 (Oan 5) at first, then was duplicated in 1614 (Keicho 19)
This Engi consists of 4 parts. The first part is written about the whole life of Chogen. The second part called “Jodo-ji Engi” shows the origin of the Jodo-ji, the scale of its auditorium or its store fixture, the age of completion and so on. The third part is written about Kan-a who followed Chogen and was in charge of management of the temple and manors. The last part shows the chronological episode of the Jodo-ji, this part was added later.
The Jodo-ji Engi has been famous for a long time as basic data of the history which shows trails of Chogen, Jodo-ji and manors of “Obe no sho”. Until now, this data has been quoted as data base of the history of Hyogo prefecture and the history of Ono city, lots of studies has drawn the source. Because the contents have a character of Engi (origin), we can not regard all of this data as a historical fact. However, Jodo-ji Engi includes so much information which was found only in this data that we can recognize this as a very precious one in taking into account history of Hyogo in early stage of Kamakura era.