Former place of Kokutaiji Temple and Atago Pond

The Former Kokuzen-ji Atago Pond is located just off the Shirakami Shrine intersection along Peace Boulevard. It is about a 3-minute walk from Fukuromachi Station on the Hiroshima Electric Railway and within walking distance of the Atomic Bomb Dome and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Although Kokuzen-ji Temple was relocated to the Koi area of Nishi Ward in 1978, Atago Pond within the former temple grounds remains a valuable historic site that preserves remnants from the time Hiroshima castle town was first established. The former Kokuzen-ji was situated near the original coastline during the construction of Hiroshima Castle, and Atago Pond was created using rocks that appeared and disappeared with the tides. The name "Atago Pond" is said to derive from the nearby Atago Shrine that once served as the temple’s guardian shrine, and traces believed to be from that shrine can still be seen carved into the rocks today. These rocks are part of a bedrock formation and are said to be connected underground to the reef at Shirakami Shrine. The predecessor of Kokuzen-ji was Shin-Ankoku-ji Temple, built in 1594 by Ankoku-ji Ekei. After the Battle of Sekigahara, Fukushima Masanori invited his younger brother Fushō to the temple, renaming it Kokuzen-ji. Under the patronage of the Asano clan, the temple became one of the largest in the Hiroshima domain, with grounds said to cover approximately 130 meters square.