Chion-in Temple Great Bell Tower

The Great Bell Tower of Chion-in

Climb the stone steps behind the Hōbutsuden hall at Chion-in and you reach a square wooden pavilion raised in 1678 for one demanding job: to hold up a bronze bell weighing roughly 70 tons. The bell was already 42 years old by then, cast in 1636, and finding a way to suspend it safely had taken repeated attempts. The building that finally managed it is the Daishōrō, or Great Bell Tower, and it is the structure designated as an Important Cultural Property at this spot.

Chion-in is the head temple of the Jōdo (Pure Land) school of Buddhism, established on the ground where the monk Hōnen taught in his later years and died in 1212. The vast complex visitors see today took shape during the Edo period, when the Tokugawa shoguns made the temple their family's memorial site in Kyoto. The bell tower belongs to that building campaign, put up during the abbacy of Gen'yo Manbu, the temple's 38th head priest.

Why the Tower Is an Important Cultural Property

The Daishōrō was designated an Important Cultural Property on 29 May 1997, under the criterion that recognises structures of outstanding technical achievement. That wording points straight to the problem the carpenters faced. A bell of this mass cannot simply hang from a beam. Its load has to be carried down through the whole frame and into the ground without the timbers splitting or the pavilion racking out of square.

The building measures three bays by three bays, a single storey under a hip-and-gable (irimoya) roof finished in formal round-and-flat tiles. Within that compact plan the framing is unusually heavy, with thick posts and a deep braced upper structure sized to the bell rather than to the modest footprint. Seen from outside, the result is a low, broad, solidly planted tower, noticeably stockier than an ordinary temple belfry.

The Bell and the New Year Ritual

The bell itself stands 3.3 metres tall and measures 2.8 metres across the mouth, with walls about 30 centimetres thick. It was cast in 1636 at the urging of Ōyo Reigan, the 32nd abbot, who raised the money from the temple's lay followers. Together with the great bells of Hōkō-ji in Kyoto and Tōdai-ji in Nara, it counts as one of the three largest in Japan.

Look closely at the surface and you find no record of who paid for the casting or why. The only text cast into the bronze is the nembutsu invocation "Namu Amida Butsu" and the founder's name. Leaving off the usual dedicatory inscription is said to have been Reigan's deliberate choice, a way of heading off the disputes that an ill-worded text could provoke in later generations.

The bell sounds only twice a year: at the Gyoki-e services held for Hōnen each April, and on New Year's Eve. The New Year ringing is the one most people know. Seventeen monks take part, sixteen of them pulling rope handles while one works the main rope, throwing his body backward almost flat as he drives the wooden striker into the rim. The scene is broadcast across Japan most years. General visitors may watch but do not take part.

Around the Tower

The bell tower sits toward the higher, quieter edge of the grounds, so reaching it means a short walk and a climb past the central halls. On the way you pass two National Treasures. The San-mon gate at the entrance, built in 1621, ranks among the largest wooden temple gates in Japan, about 24 metres tall and 50 metres wide. The Mieidō, the main hall rebuilt in 1639 after a fire, anchors the central terrace.

Chion-in is also known for its "seven wonders," among them a nightingale floor that chirps underfoot and an umbrella tucked into the rafters of the Mieidō. The grounds themselves are free to enter, while the Hōjō garden and the Yūzen-en garden charge separate admission. The temple sits at the foot of the Higashiyama hills, a few minutes from Maruyama Park, Yasaka Shrine and the lanes of Gion.