It was founded as a school for Buddhist priests of the Nishi Hongan-ji denomination in 1639, and became a secularized university in 1876. The university's professors and students founded the literary magazine Chūōkōron in 1887. It has three campuses: Fukakusa and Omiya in Kyoto; and Seta in Shiga prefecture. Its campuses are smoke-free. It is one university belongs to "San-Kin-Ko-Ryu"(産近甲龍), a group of semi-major private universities in the Kansai area.
