What tsumegumi means

Tsumegumi is the arrangement of bracket sets not only on top of the posts but also, in the same form, in the intervals between them. The brackets run continuously along the eaves, giving a dense and vigorous appearance. It is regarded as a feature of the Zen style introduced with Zen Buddhism in the Kamakura period.

In the native Wayō style, bracket sets stand only on the posts, and the intervals between posts carry a different, simpler element such as a frog-leg strut or a short post with a bearing block. In tsumegumi the intervals carry the same bracket sets as the posts, so the arrangement of the brackets is one of the main clues for telling the two styles apart.

To carry the intermediate brackets, Zen-style buildings usually run a thick horizontal member, the daiwa, along the tops of the posts and set the bracket sets on it.

Reading the records and the building

Records combine the term with the bracket type, as three-block tsumegumi or one-step-projecting tsumegumi. The bell tower of Ryukoji in Fujisawa, Kanagawa, is based on the Zen style, its four round posts leaning slightly inward and its brackets arranged as three-block tsumegumi. The purification pavilion of the same temple, also Zen-based, has one-step-projecting tsumegumi, with carved ornament on the head tie and animal carvings on the kibana.

For comparison, the bell tower of Yutenji in Meguro, Tokyo, has three-block bracket sets on the posts and simpler three-block sets with kibana between them, a different arrangement from tsumegumi.

On site, look up under the eaves. If the same bracket sets appear between the posts as on them, the arrangement is tsumegumi; if only struts or posts stand between them, it follows the wayo pattern.

References

龍口寺鐘楼｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00013698
龍口寺手水舎｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00013699
祐天寺鐘楼｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00012304

Last verified: 2026.09.26