On the 2-kilometer approach from Ichinobashi Bridge to the mausoleum, more than 200,000 gravestones, prayer monuments, and memorials to the lords of the feudal lords stand in a grove of thousand-year-old cedar trees.

Mount Koya is the center of Shingon Buddhism, an important Buddhist sect which was introduced to Japan in 805 by Kobo Daishi (also known as Kukai), one of Japan's most significant religious figures. A small, secluded temple town has developed around the sect's headquarters that Kobo Daishi built on Koyasan's wooded mountaintop. It is also the site of Kobo Daishi's mausoleum and the start and end point of the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage.

Danjo Garan is one of the two sacred sites of Koyasan, along with Okuno-in Temple, which was the first place Kobo Daishi Kukai built when he founded Koyasan. It is said to embody the mandala worldview based on esoteric Buddhism, and is lined with 19 halls, including Kondo, the main hall of Koyasan, and the 48.5-meter-high Nemoto Daito, the symbol of Koyasan.