Matsuba Kannondō Hall Temple

Matsuba Kannondo Hall was founded in 1777 by a descendant of Kasamatsu Satayo, the seventeenth-century village headman who built the Aragijima Rice Terraces and established Aridagawa's papermaking industry. Satayo had wanted to build a Kannon temple his entire life but spent all his wealth on community development and never completed it. His great-great-grandson fulfilled the wish 104 years later. Each spring the temple hosts the Hatsuuma Eshiki Festival, held annually since 1778. The event involves a procession up the temple's hilly approach carrying large kagami mochi rice cakes, which are offered to Kannon before participants jostle to catch smaller mochi thrown in one of the region's largest such events.