Shimayama Children's Park

It is said that this park, surrounded by pine woods at the coastline running along the south-east side of Bungo-Toyooka station, was once a fort to defend against outsiders and pirates. In around the year 650, a Tang ship became shipwrecked along the coast here. The Tang people who were saved settled in the valley below Hokke-ji Temple, until they were picked up by their countrymen more than 10 years later, finally returning home to China.
From that time onwards, Shimayama was nicknamed 'Tojinjima', meaning the island of the Tang people, or 'Kansenjima' (Chinese Ship Island).The reef off the coast of Shimayama where the ship came to land also came to be called 'Ikari-ishi', or anchor rock.