Osu Kannon, the story of a name

At the beginning of the Edo Period, in 1612, the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu moved to Nagoya, in the today's Naka ward, a temple from Ōsu-go, Nagoka Village, in the Owari domain (the today's city of Hashima, Gifu Prefecture).

The temple was just destroyed by flooding and a lot of its goods were lost. All that was saved, including a precious statue of Kannon sculpted by Kobo Daishi, were brought to the new location, in a small village called Hiokimura.

The presence of the temple raised the importance of the village, and as a result the name of the place was changed to Ōsu, as the original location of the temple. Today, the official name of the temple is Kitanosan Shinpuku-ji Hosho-in, but it is know as the Ōsu Kannon Temple.