Shunkoin Temple Bell Tower

The Bell Tower of Shunkoin: A Zen-Style Showpiece of 1865

If the main hall of Shunkoin is restrained and the gate plain, the bell tower is where the temple lets its carpenters show their range. It stands north of the main hall on a base of rounded river stones, a single-bay square structure crowned with a hip-and-gable roof. Built in 1865, the first year of Keio and almost the last of the Edo period, it is the most decorated of the seven registered buildings here.

The tower belongs to the Zen architectural mode, the Zenshuyo, one of the styles brought from China in the medieval centuries and kept alive in Japan's Zen temples. The lower part flares outward in a board-clad skirt called a hakamagoshi, finished in a particular lapped weatherboarding. Around the upper gallery runs a railing topped with onion-shaped finials, the giboshi, a detail that reads at a distance and frames the bell within.

Shunkoin is a Soto Zen temple founded in 1556 by the lord of Odaka Castle in memory of his father. The grounds escaped the fires of the Pacific War, and the bell tower is one of seven structures entered on the national register in July 2005.

Why the Bell Tower Was Registered

Registration recognizes a well-balanced and unusually complete example of a Zen-style bell tower in good condition. Its value is concentrated in the upper structure, where several signatures of the Zen mode appear together. The brackets are projecting three-block sets arranged in a continuous packed line, the tsumegumi, and the wall plate spreads sideways to carry them. Above, the eaves use fan-arranged rafters in two tiers, the ogi-daruki, splaying out from the corners in the way the Zen style favors.

The roof is a hip-and-gable form in pan tiles. Look up inside and the ceiling is coffered, with color applied to the panels between the grid. Few small structures pack this many considered details into a single bay, and the proportions hold them together rather than letting them compete, which is what earns the tower its place on the register.

What to Look For on a Visit

Start at the bottom and work up. The flared skirt base sets the tower apart from the moment you see it, its weatherboarded sides widening toward the stone platform. Climb your eye to the railing with its onion-shaped finials, then to the packed brackets and the fan rafters spreading at the corners. These are the marks of the Zen style, gathered here in one compact building.

Do not miss the ceiling. The coffered grid carries painted color in its panels, a touch of brightness inside an otherwise timber structure. The bell tower sits in the open north of the main hall and can be seen at any time, a natural pairing with the gate at the start or end of a walk through the grounds. Among the seven buildings, this is the one that rewards the longest upward look.