 The second character (阜 "fu") means "base of the mountain" and comes from Qufu (曲阜), the birthplace of Confucius.Though he was not originally from the area, Nobunaga chose to use Dōsan's castle and mountain as his base of operations, which he renamed Gifu Castle and Mount Kinka, respectively.Gifu's economy grew immensely during this period, primarily due to its location at the center of Nobunaga's expanding empire.