Considering that the role of To-ji Choja is to be in charge of the maintenance, management and improvement of To-ji Temple, which Kukai left, it is not at all wrong to consider the chief of the construction department of To-ji Temple as the forerunner of To-ji Choja and to consider Kukai, who helped construct the To-ji Temple, as the first To-ji betto.
もっとも、東寺長者の役割を空海が遺した東寺を維持・管理・整備する責任者であると考えるならば、造東寺所別当を東寺長者の前身とみなして最初に東寺を整備した空海を初代と考えることも決して誤りではないと言える。