Five and a Half Square Metres
Meisekiji Temple Chozuya (明石寺手水舎) is the small open-sided pavilion sheltering the water basin southwest of the Nio gate at Meisekiji in Uwacho, Seiyo City, Ehime Prefecture, built in 1937 and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2 October 2007.
At 5.5 square metres it is the smallest of the nine registered structures at Meisekiji. The main hall covers 104, the guest hall 157. This one is the size of a garden shed and it holds four posts, a roof and a stone trough.
A chozuya is where visitors rinse hands and mouth before approaching a hall, and in most temples the structure that does that job is treated as plumbing with a lid. The Agency for Cultural Affairs takes a different view here, closing its description of Meisekiji Temple Chozuya by calling it a fine piece carefully finished in its architectural detail despite its small scale. That sentence is the argument for the registration.
The Basin That Dates the Building
In the centre, under the roof, sits a granite trough. Two characters are cut into it, sensin, meaning to wash the heart, and beside them a date corresponding to 1937.
That inscription is the dating evidence. Timber buildings of this scale rarely carry a ridge tablet and rarely appear in temple accounts, so the year on the stone is what fixes Meisekiji Temple Chozuya in the sequence of the precinct. It places the pavilion at the end of the long rebuilding campaign that began with the Daishi Hall in 1880: by 1937 the halls, the gate and the retaining walls were all finished, and the temple was down to the last piece of the approach.
The phrase cut into the stone is also worth reading as intent. A washing place could have been labelled simply. This one was given a two-character motto that turns a practical fitting into an instruction about attention, and somebody paid a mason to cut it.
Full Grammar on a Very Small Frame
Four square posts carry the roof, set uchi-korobi, leaning slightly inwards at the top, and the structure is open on all four sides. Above the posts run beams and bracketing that would not look out of place on a building five times the size.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs records Mitsudo-gumi bracket sets at the column heads and doubled rows of closely spaced Taruki rafters at the eaves. The gable is filled with a Kōryō beam and a Taiheizuka strut, flanked by oigata, the curved wing-shaped boards that brace the strut. Seiyo City describes the same area as a double koryo composition and adds Gegyo pendants at both gable ends, Kaerumata frog-leg struts carved with chrysanthemum crests, and bracket-ends at the posts. Between them the two accounts list most of the vocabulary of Japanese temple carpentry, applied to a shelter over a water trough.
The roof is Kirizuma-zukuri, a simple gable. Here the records disagree on material. The Agency for Cultural Affairs structure field says tile, while its own explanatory note says sheet copper and Seiyo City also says copper. Two of the three descriptions support copper, and copper is what suits a roof of this span. Visitors checking the primary record against the building should be aware of the conflict.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs also classifies Meisekiji Temple Chozuya under other constructed works rather than as a building, the same category applied to the bell tower and the stone walls, because it encloses no floor area.
Visiting
Meisekiji Temple Chozuya stands in the open southwest of the Nio gate and can be seen at any hour without an admission fee. It is passed by almost everyone arriving on foot, which is precisely why it is easy to walk past without looking up.
Looking up is the whole recommendation. Stand beside the basin and raise your eyes to the underside of the roof: the bracket sets, the rafters and the gable framing are all within about two metres of your head, closer than these members ever come in a full-sized hall. It is one of the few places where the detail of Japanese temple carpentry can be examined at reading distance.
Photography is not restricted. The basin is a working fitting in daily use rather than an exhibit, so follow any notice posted beside it.
From JR Unomachi Station on the Yosan Line the temple is about three kilometres, roughly eight minutes by car and about forty minutes on foot. Drivers leave the Matsuyama Expressway at the Seiyo Uwa interchange, about ten minutes away. The car park takes about 200 vehicles and is free for cars, with 1,000 yen for large and medium buses and 500 yen for microbuses. The temple can be reached on 0894-62-0032. The precinct is part of the nationally designated Historic Site covering the Iyo pilgrimage routes.
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Q&A
- What is Meisekiji Temple Chozuya?
- It is the open-sided pavilion that shelters the water basin where visitors rinse hands and mouth before approaching the halls. At 5.5 square metres it is the smallest of the nine registered structures at Meisekiji.
- When was Meisekiji Temple Chozuya built and registered?
- In 1937. The date is cut into the granite basin beneath the roof, alongside two characters meaning to wash the heart. It was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2 October 2007.
- Where is Meisekiji Temple Chozuya in the precinct?
- Southwest of the Nio gate, on the level below the upper terrace, on the route almost everyone takes walking up from the stone steps.
- Why was a building this small worth registering?
- Because of the quality of the detail. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes Meisekiji Temple Chozuya as carefully finished in its architectural detail despite its small scale, with bracket sets, doubled rafters and carved gable framing that belong to much larger buildings.
- What is the roof of Meisekiji Temple Chozuya made of?
- A simple gable roof, described as sheet copper by both the explanatory note of the Agency for Cultural Affairs and Seiyo City. The structure field of the national database records tile instead, so the two parts of that record do not agree.
Basic Information
| Name | Meisekiji Temple Chozuya |
|---|---|
| Location | 205 Akashi, Uwacho, Seiyo City, Ehime Prefecture, and adjoining lots |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered on 2 October 2007 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Area 5.5 sq m; timber, gabled roof (sheet copper per the explanatory note; tile per the structure field) |
| Owner | Not recorded in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database |
| Public Access | Open structure on the temple precinct; visible at any time, no admission fee |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Meisekiji Chozuya
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00006325
- Seiyo City: Nationally Registered Meisekiji Chozuya
- https://www.city.seiyo.ehime.jp/miryoku/seiyoshibunkazai/bunkazai/kuni/kuni_yukei_kenzobutsu/4208.html
- Seiyo City: Meisekiji Keidai and Daihoji Michi Recommended as National Historic Sites
- https://www.city.seiyo.ehime.jp/miryoku/seiyoshibunkazai/bunkazai/kuni/kshiseki/6592.html
- Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage Association: Temple 43, Genkozan Enjuin Meisekiji
- https://88shikokuhenro.jp/43meisekiji/
Last verified: 2026.09.05