Forty-Three Steps to the Gate
Meisekiji Temple Stone Steps and Stone Wall (明石寺石段及び石垣) is the granite stairway and the rough-stone terracing that lead up to the Nio gate of Meisekiji in Uwacho, Seiyo City, Ehime Prefecture, laid in 1916 with later additions, and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2 October 2007.
This is the first thing a visitor to Meisekiji actually touches. The approach leaves the car park, narrows between trees, and then the ground turns into stairs. Forty-three of them, with a landing part way, ending square in front of the gate. The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives the run a width of 3.7 metres in its structure field and 3.6 metres in its explanatory note; Seiyo City also records 3.6 metres, along with a total length of 20.75 metres.
A stone post beside the lowest steps carries an inscription dated to the third month of 1916. That date is the anchor for the stairway. The stone walls on either side and above belong partly to the same Taisho-era campaign and partly to additions made in the early Showa years.
One Stone per Tread
The treads are granite, cut and dressed rather than found. What makes Meisekiji Temple Stone Steps and Stone Wall unusual is the sizing. Except for a few courses at the bottom, each step is a single piece of stone spanning the full 3.6-metre width. No joints, no pieced-together treads. Only where the stairway curves did the masons give up on that rule, joining three stones per step to follow the arc.
The proportions are recorded precisely: a riser of 250 millimetres and a tread of 350 millimetres. That is steeper than a modern stair, which typically pairs a shorter riser with a deeper tread, and you feel it in the calves on the way up and in the knees on the way down. It is also a proportion that keeps a long flight short in plan, which matters on a hillside where horizontal space is the thing in shortest supply.
Granite blocks of that span are heavy and expensive, and the ones here were paid for by ordinary parishioners and pilgrims. Seiyo City's description reads the stairway as evidence of how much lay donors of the period were prepared to give. The registration criterion applied was that the structure contributes to the historic landscape of the country, and the stairway does much of that work on its own: it sets the pace at which everyone arrives.
The Walls That Made the Middle Terrace
Flanking the steps and continuing beyond them is the stonework that created the middle level of the precinct, where the Jizo Hall stands. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records a total length of 65 metres.
These walls are built differently from the stairway. They use nozura-ishi, undressed field stones laid more or less as found, in random coursing. The faces are lumpy and the joints wide, and small stones are wedged into the gaps to lock the larger ones. It is the oldest and plainest of the Japanese wall-building methods, and it produces a surface that moss and fern colonise quickly.
One stretch on the west side breaks the pattern. There the stones are set on the diagonal in alternating directions, a method called yabane-zumi after the fletching of an arrow. The herringbone reads clearly once you know to look for it, and it is the one place in Meisekiji Temple Stone Steps and Stone Wall where the masons chose a figure over plain utility.
Together the stairway and the walls turn a wooded slope into three usable shelves. The uppermost of those shelves is held by a separate registered structure, the chert retaining wall completed in 1930.
Walking It
Meisekiji Temple Stone Steps and Stone Wall is outdoors and open at all times with no admission fee. There is a handrail on part of the flight but not all of it, and the granite becomes slick in rain, so shoes with grip are sensible. Visitors who would rather not climb should know that the temple car park sits close to the upper precinct, and there is a route in that avoids the main stairway.
Photography is unrestricted here. The stairway photographs best in the morning, when light comes down the flight from the gate end rather than flattening it from above.
JR Unomachi Station on the Yosan Line is about three kilometres away, some eight minutes by car and about forty minutes on foot. By road it is roughly ten minutes from the Seiyo Uwa interchange on the Matsuyama Expressway. 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. Enquiries go to the temple on 0894-62-0032.
Meisekiji is temple 43 on the Shikoku pilgrimage circuit, and the precinct is part of the nationally designated Historic Site that covers the Iyo pilgrimage routes. On 3 February each year the temple holds a fire ritual in the open ground between the foot of the upper steps and the Jizo Hall, which is one of the few days when the stairway sees a crowd.
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Q&A
- How many steps does Meisekiji Temple Stone Steps and Stone Wall have?
- Forty-three, with a landing part way up, ending in front of the Nio gate. The flight is 3.6 metres wide and 20.75 metres long overall, with a riser of 250 millimetres and a tread of 350 millimetres.
- What is Meisekiji Temple Stone Steps and Stone Wall made of?
- The steps are dressed granite, with most treads cut from a single stone spanning the full width. The flanking and terracing walls are undressed field stone in random coursing, with one section on the west side laid in the diagonal yabane-zumi pattern.
- When was Meisekiji Temple Stone Steps and Stone Wall built and registered?
- A stone post beside the steps is inscribed with a date in the third month of 1916. Parts of the walls date from the same Taisho era and others were added in the early Showa years. The whole was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2 October 2007.
- Is Meisekiji Temple Stone Steps and Stone Wall difficult to climb?
- The flight is steeper than a modern stair and the granite is slippery when wet, so grip is worth thinking about. There is a handrail on part of the run. Visitors who prefer not to climb can use the car park close to the upper precinct.
- Is there an admission fee or a time limit for seeing Meisekiji Temple Stone Steps and Stone Wall?
- Neither. It is an outdoor structure on an open precinct, free to visit at any hour, and photography is not restricted.
Basic Information
| Name | Meisekiji Temple Stone Steps and Stone Wall |
|---|---|
| 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 site |
| Dimensions | Stone steps: 43 steps, width 3.6 m (the Agency for Cultural Affairs structure field gives 3.7 m), length 20.75 m. Stone wall: total length 65 m |
| Owner | Not recorded in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database |
| Public Access | Outdoor structure on the temple precinct; open at any time, no admission fee |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Meisekiji Ishidan oyobi Ishigaki
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00006328
- Seiyo City: Nationally Registered Meisekiji Ishidan oyobi Ishigaki
- https://www.city.seiyo.ehime.jp/miryoku/seiyoshibunkazai/bunkazai/kuni/kuni_yukei_kenzobutsu/4211.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