Kokutaiji Temple and Atago Pond

Along Peace Boulevard, a grove of trees surrounds the dry remains of Atago Pond, which once formed the garden of Kokutaiji Temple, the most influential Buddhist temple in Hiroshima during the Edo period. The temple handled burials for the ruling Asano clan and stood near the old coastline when the city was younger. The atomic bomb in 1945 destroyed the temple entirely, but many of the trees around the pond survived. Some still show the marks of the explosion; others burned and later sprouted new growth. The pond site was preserved in 1978 when the rebuilt temple relocated to the Koi district, as a record of what stood here.