Temple legend holds that the monk Ennin built Ryusen-ji in 808, enshrining a statue of Fudo-myoo during a journey from Shimotsuke Province to Mount Hiei. Many temples in eastern Japan claim Ennin as their founder, and historians remain uncertain how many of these traditions are genuine. What is documented is that by 860, Emperor Seiwa had authorized a change to the temple's mountain name, placing Ryusen-ji firmly in the early Heian period. Then the temple vanishes from the written record for centuries, reappearing only in the early Edo period. In 1615, fire destroyed the main hall. By 1630, the powerful monk Tenkai had brought Ryusen-ji under the wing of Kanei-ji, restoring and enlarging it with the patronage of Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu. The temple became one of Edo's major sightseeing destinations, famous for its lottery and for the popular belief that bathing in its springs or waterfall could cure illness.

The cemetery at Ryusen-ji reads like a cast list from Japanese history and literature. The most famous graves belong to Hirai Gonpachi and Komurasaki, a romantic couple whose tragic story was immortalized in countless Kabuki plays and in A.B. Mitford's Tales of Old Japan. Nearby lies Aoki Konyo, a Confucian scholar who lived from 1698 to 1769 and is remembered as the man who popularized sweet potato cultivation across Japan. His tomb, a simple stone monument inscribed with "Konyo-sensei's tomb," was reportedly erected during his own lifetime and was designated a National Historic Site in 1943. The cemetery also holds the grave and memorial of Ikki Kita, the pre-war political philosopher whose radical ideas influenced the young military officers who attempted a coup in the February 26 Incident of 1936. The temple grounds also mark the friendship between Filipino national hero Jose Rizal and Seiko Usui, a samurai's daughter known as Osei-san.

During the Edo period, a temple town grew around Ryusen-ji, its shops specializing in bamboo products and dishes made with bamboo shoots. The bamboo itself was a relative newcomer to the region, introduced as a commercial crop by the Shimazu clan of Satsuma Domain. Guidebooks like the Edo meisho zue depicted the temple as a must-visit destination, its waterfalls and springs drawing pilgrims and tourists alike. Artists including Kitao Shigemasa and Hiroshige captured the scene in ukiyo-e woodblock prints that still survive in museum collections. Then in May 1978, fire swept through the temple again, destroying most of its structures. One of the few Edo-period buildings to survive was the Seishi-do chapel, built in the mid-Edo period and now a Designated Tangible Cultural Property of Meguro Ward. Today Ryusen-ji stands rebuilt in modern materials, its ancient spiritual role intact even as its physical form has been remade.

Ryusen-ji belongs to the Tendai school of Japanese Buddhism and serves as the 18th stop on the Kanto Sanjuroku Fudo pilgrimage route, a circuit of 36 temples in the Kanto region dedicated to Fudo-myoo. The temple's main image is a hibutsu, a hidden Buddha, kept veiled from public view according to longstanding tradition. This practice of concealment gives the statue its spiritual power: what cannot be seen must be imagined, and what is imagined commands devotion. For visitors who come not as pilgrims but as curious travelers, the temple offers something equally compelling -- a place where the present-day city of Tokyo dissolves and the layered history of Edo reveals itself, one gravestone, one chapel, one painted eye at a time.