Chofukuji Temple

It is said to have been founded during the Jinki era (724-729). Documents from the Edo period state that when the son of the 4th Shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate, Yoritsune, suffered from smallpox, he ate the original species of Saijo persimmon from Chofukuji Temple and was completely cured. Until around the Bunka and Bunsei eras (1804-1830), there was a giant persimmon tree with a trunk circumference of 4.8m, and at the time, only this persimmon was called "Saijo persimmon." As the original trees of Saijo persimmons that are now planted all over the country were located here, the temple has been designated as a city historic site as the "birthplace of Saijo persimmons," and a group of Buddhist statues that are prefectural and city important cultural properties are also enshrined here.