The oldest temple in the east of Hokkaido, Kokutaiji was built on Barasan Cape. The reason why the temple has been famous for its cherry blossoms since ancient times may be because Cape Barasan protected the temple from the violent winds and waves of the North Sea.

Kunitai-ji is one of the three official temples in Ezo, and was established in 1804 at the request of the Hakodate magistrate in the midst of the crisis in the northern part of the country caused by the southward expansion of Russia and the adverse effects of the location contractor system in the late Edo period (1603-1867).

Most of the existing buildings have been renovated in later periods, but the precincts retain their Edo period appearance. As an important temple that played a unique historical role in the Ezo region, 130,000 square meters including Aikan in the back is designated as a national historic site.

The precincts of Kokutai-ji are one of the most famous cherry blossom viewing spots in Hokkaido, and the old cherry trees are the ones with the darkest colored flowers. It is said that the tree was transplanted from Ishinomaki, Oshu (Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture) in 1830 by Bunemon Yamada, a contractor at the Akkeshi site, when he was restoring the main building and the koryu (the temple's reception hall) during the reign of Gensong Bundo, the fifth abbot of Kokutaiji. This cherry tree, with the Japanese name Oyama-zakura, is about 10 meters tall and has a trunk circumference of about 3 meters, with long branches extending out in all directions.