The Saionji family of court nobles prospered during the Kamakura period due to Kintsune's close connections to the Kamakura bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun) but went into decline after the collapse of the Kamakura bakufu and, in the Muromachi period, the third shogun, Yoshimitsu ASHIKAGA, constructed Kitayamadai (now Rokuon-ji Temple) on this site, with the temple being relocated to Muromachi in 1352.
公家である西園寺家は公経が鎌倉幕府と関係があったことから鎌倉時代には隆盛したが、鎌倉幕府が滅亡するにおよび衰退し、室町時代に入ると3代将軍足利義満がこの地に北山第（現在の鹿苑寺）の造営に伴い1352年（文和元年）室町に移った。