Takefu Knife village

This is the Chrysanthemums Exhibition Hall. You can see life-size dolls covered with chrysanthemums, which are exhibited during the Kikuningyō Festival in Takefu Central Park. The flowers are displayed here and continue growing throughout the year. You can view the traditional way of growing mums. Some unique flowers are "nanahon-date" – a flower that branches off into seven directions, "kengai" – a flower whose petals spread out like a carpet of flowers, and "senrin-giku" – a sort of clumped up bunch of flowers. There are many other varieties to see when you visit.

"Manyo-shu" is a royal collection of wakas, traditional Japanese poems, from the Nara era (about 1200 years ago). Some of the "Manyo-shu" wakas are said to have been written in a part of Echizen City, in Ajimano. These poems are displayed here.

Jōfuku-ji Temple’s garden is designated one of the must-see spots in Japan, owing to its beautiful Japanese style garden with rocks, sand, and moss. The temple was made by Tairano Yorimori whose elder brother was Tairano Kiyomori, a samurai leader of the Kamakura Era. From here you can see the beautiful Mt. Hino. A big holly tree on a mound looks like a mountain. And the moss around it appears as a wave in the sea. The garden has many seasonal flowers: camellias in the spring, azaleas in the early summer, maple leaves in the fall, and the white flowers of holly in the winter.

Gōshō-ji Temple is one of the headquarters of Shinshū sect in Buddhism. It is a very sober experience to walk under the valuable, decorated gate which is made of zelkova wood. The temple was built in Kyoto by Shinran in 1223. It was moved to Echizen City in 1615. The spacious temple contains Shinran Hall, Amida Hall, a warehouse of sutras, and a bell tower. Inspired after visiting the temple in 1933 the poets Tekkan Yosano and Akiko Yosano wrote 14 tankas expressing how beautifully Goshoji Temple was wreathed with the fallen leaves, and how much we are blessed by Buddha.

Komaru Castle was built by Oda Nobunaga’s follower, Sassa Narimasa, from 1575 to 1581. Here you can still see the foundations, part of the gate, and some roof tiles on which stories about the Buddhist revolts against Oda’s repression were written.

These shrines stand side by side on the top of Mt. Gongen, and a combined shrine, which was rebuilt through the advanced skills in constructing shrines in the latter half of Edo Era, lies at the foot of the mountain. The goddess of paper, -- the only one in Japan -- "Mistress Kawakami," is enshrined here. Legend says she taught people how to make paper 1,500 years ago. In 1985 these shrines were designated a National Important Cultural Property.