Chōkō-ji Temple Bell Tower: A Rare Bell House in the Hyōgo Hills
Behind the great main hall of Chōkō-ji, in the wooded hills of Kato City, stands a small square bell tower that architectural historians treat as one of the finer survivals of its kind. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the structure to the late Kamakura period (roughly 1275 to 1332) and designated it an Important Cultural Property on 17 September 1954. It is a single building, one bay square, raised on a flared boarded base and capped with a low hip roof.
What makes it worth the climb is not size. The bell tower is modest next to the National Treasure main hall a few steps away. Its interest lies in a combination of features that turns up in very few other places in Japan.
The temple it belongs to
Chōkō-ji sits on a hill called Rokuyasan and belongs to the Kōyasan Shingon school of Buddhism. Temple tradition credits its founding to the semi-legendary monk Hōdō Sennin in the year 651, one of many temples in eastern Hyōgo that claim him as their founder. Hard records from those early centuries are thin, and the temple's own history before the medieval period is difficult to reconstruct.
The site that visitors see today dates from a relocation in 1189, when the temple moved to its present spot beside Tsukubane Falls. The main hall that anchors the precinct was built between 1413 and 1428, in the early Muromachi period, and was made a National Treasure in 1954, the same year the bell tower received its own designation. The two principal images of the eleven-headed, thousand-armed Kannon are kept as hidden Buddhas, opened to view only about once every sixty years; the most recent opening was in 2023.
Why the bell tower was designated
The building is what Japanese architecture calls a hakamagoshi bell tower. The upper level houses the bell and opens on all four sides, while the lower section flares outward in a boarded skirt, the hakamagoshi, that gives the whole structure the silhouette of a figure in wide pleated trousers. Above sits a hip roof topped by a boxed ridge, the hakomune.
That specific pairing is the point. A hip roof carrying a boxed ridge, set over a hakamagoshi base, has very few parallels nationwide, which is the main reason the structure was singled out for protection. The detailing follows the wayō, or Japanese style, but mixes in other elements, making it an eclectic design rather than a pure example of any one school.
Several features mark it as a work that preserves late-Kamakura form: the gentle curve of the roof, bracket blocks cut taller in proportion to their width than later carpenters favoured, and an upper veranda floored with open slats rather than solid boards. Local records add a complicating note. Kato City's account states that the building as it now stands was rebuilt by the warrior Akamatsu Yoshimura during the Eishō era (1504 to 1521), and that it was dismantled and repaired in 1955. The national designation rests on the older stylistic dating, so the late-Kamakura attribution and the tradition of an early sixteenth-century reconstruction sit side by side in the record.
What to look for on a visit
Approach from below and the proportions read clearly. The flared base widens toward the ground while the bell chamber above stays compact, and the eye is drawn to how the roofline curves down to the corners of the hip. Look up into the bracketing under the eaves and compare the height of the blocks to their width; the slightly elongated profile is the kind of detail that separates this tower from later, squatter examples.
The roof today is copper plate worked to imitate tochibuki, a covering of thick wood shingles that the building originally carried. The change in material is practical, but the surface still mimics the layered look of the older shingled roof. Step around to the upper veranda railing and you can see the open slatted floor that the surveyors noted as an archaic touch.
The bell tower stands to the right of the main hall. Because the precinct is quiet and rarely crowded, there is room to circle the building slowly and take in each side, which is the best way to appreciate a structure whose appeal is in its geometry rather than in any single carved ornament.
Around the temple
The precinct rewards a wider look. The National Treasure main hall, a broad seven-bay-square building under a tiled hip roof, is the visual centre, and a two-storied pagoda registered as a prefectural cultural property stands nearby. Just south of the grounds, Tsukubane Falls drops about ten metres in two strands of water over rough rock, an easy detour on the path up from the parking area.
Every year on 5 May the temple hosts the Oni-oi odori, a demon-chasing dance recognised as a Hyōgo prefectural Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. One performer in an old man's mask and four demon dancers move to a plain, repeating bell beat, leaping and brandishing hand-held implements in a rite that asks for good harvests and freedom from illness. The dance is thought to have medieval roots, though its exact origin is not documented.
Two sub-temples, Kisshōin and Sōjiin, look after the site, and pilgrims collect their goshuin seal at Kisshōin. The surrounding district of Kato City is known as a producer of Yamada Nishiki, the premium rice used in sake brewing, so the approach roads run through some of the region's best paddy country.
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Q&A
- Is the bell tower the same thing as the famous main hall?
- No. The main hall is a National Treasure from the early 1400s, while the bell tower is a separate, smaller building designated an Important Cultural Property. Both sit in the same precinct, a few steps apart.
- How old is the bell tower?
- The national database dates it to the late Kamakura period, around 1275 to 1332, on the basis of its architectural style. A local tradition holds that the present building was rebuilt in the early sixteenth century, so accounts of its exact age differ.
- What is the hakamagoshi I keep reading about?
- It is the flared, boarded lower section that widens toward the ground, named for its resemblance to wide pleated trousers. Combined here with a hip roof and a boxed ridge, it forms a shape with few parallels in Japan.
- Can I go inside or ring the bell?
- The building is open to view from the precinct, but it is a protected structure and not a facility for visitors to enter or use. Treat it as you would any historic building and observe it from outside.
- When is the best time to come?
- The grounds are pleasant year round and usually peaceful. For the Oni-oi odori demon dance, come on 5 May; for fresh greenery and the sound of Tsukubane Falls, late spring through early summer is ideal.
Basic Information
| Name | Chōkō-ji Shōrō (Chōkō-ji Temple Bell Tower) |
|---|---|
| Location | 609 Hata, Kato City, Hyōgo Prefecture |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (Structures), designated 17 September 1954; designation no. 1307 |
| Period | Late Kamakura period (1275–1332) per the national database; a local account cites a reconstruction in the Eishō era (1504–1521) |
| Count | 1 building |
| Structure | One bay square, with hakamagoshi base, hip roof, copper-plate roofing imitating tochibuki shingling |
| Owner | Chōkō-ji |
| Access | About 20 min by bus from Yashiro-chō Station (JR Kakogawa Line) to the Chōkō-ji-guchi stop, then roughly an hour on foot; about 20 min by car from the Hyōgo-Tōjō interchange on the Chūgoku Expressway |
| Viewing | Open to the public |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Chōkō-ji Shōrō
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/102/2401
- Cultural Heritage Online: Chōkō-ji Shōrō
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/146098
- Kato City, Board of Education: Chōkō-ji Shōrō
- https://www.city.kato.lg.jp/kakukanogoannai/kyouikushinkoubu/shogaigakushuka/bunkazai/siteibunkazai/kunisiteibunkazai/1509775479030.html
- Kato City Tourism Association: Chōkō-ji
- https://www.kato-kanko.jp/2017/03/choukouji/
Last verified: 2026.05.29