[2] Gifu's Sōfuku-ji is famed throughout Japan for both the number of monks it produces and for its "Blood Ceiling".

According to other stories, though, it was originally built in 1469, by Toki Shigeyori and Saitō Nagahiro, and it was officially opened in 1493.

[4][5] After Nobunaga and Nobutada died during the Incident at Honnō-ji in 1582, Kyōun'in, Nobunaga's concubine and de facto legal wife at that time, decided that Sōfuku-ji would be their memorial site and built their mausoleum and tomb.

[2] During the Edo period, the temple received much support from the government and, as a result, prospered.

Also, Tokugawa Iemitsu supported this temple immensely because his wet nurse as a child, Lady Kasuga, who was the daughter of Saitō Toshimitsu, a relative of Dōsan.