A Bell Tower Poured in Concrete
The bell tower of Jūryōji (寿量寺鐘楼, Jūryōji Shōrō, also written Juryoji Shoro), a reinforced-concrete structure of about 1935 standing in the Tenma-chō district of Kuwana City, Mie Prefecture, was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structures) on 21 June 2013.
It covers 7.5 square metres. The plan is hō-ikken, a single structural bay on each of the four sides, and the roof is hōgyō-zukuri, the pyramidal form whose four slopes rise to meet at a single apex. Bell towers of this type have been built in Japanese temple compounds for centuries. What is different here is that every part of it, posts, beams, roof, is concrete.
The tower sits in the southern part of the Jūryōji precinct. The precinct faces east onto the old Tōkaidō, the highway between Edo and Kyoto, on which Kuwana served as the forty-second post town. The Shichiri no Watashi landing, where travellers boarded boats across the bay into Ise Province, lies about 1.5 kilometres north along the same street.
Why a Small Bell Tower Matters
The Agency for Cultural Affairs puts the case plainly: the tower cannot be left out of any account of reinforced-concrete technique in this district. That is a strong claim for a structure the size of a garden shed, and it rests on chronology. Reinforced concrete reached Japanese cities in the 1900s and 1910s, mostly through banks, offices and government buildings. Its arrival in the smaller works of a provincial temple compound, in the mid-1930s, marks the point at which the material stopped being exceptional and became something a local builder could handle.
Kuwana has other evidence of the same shift. The Ishidori Kaikan, ten minutes' walk away, went up in 1925 as the Kuwana branch of the Yokkaichi Bank, also in concrete. Set the two side by side and you can watch the technique travel from commercial architecture into the temple precinct within a decade.
Then came 1945. Air raids burned through Tenma-chō and took most of Jūryōji with them. Two structures survived: this bell tower and the former Daikokuden nearby, both concrete, both incombustible. The choice of material made in the 1930s turned out, a decade later, to determine what the temple would still possess after the war.
The listing was granted in the seventy-fifth round under registration number 24-0155, against the criterion described in Japanese as zōkei no kihan, a model in form and design. Registration, introduced in 1996, is a lighter regime than designation as an Important Cultural Property: it covers buildings roughly fifty years old and upwards, and asks owners to notify rather than seek permission before substantial change.
Arches Under a Pyramid Roof
The detail that repays a close look is what happens at the top of the posts. In a timber bell tower, the corner posts would be tied by horizontal beams, often with bracket complexes above. Here the openings are spanned by arches, curved concrete heads springing from post to post on all four sides.
An arch is what concrete and masonry do naturally, and what timber framing cannot do at all. Placing arches under a hōgyō roof means that a visitor reads the silhouette as an ordinary temple bell tower from a distance and then, on approach, finds the structure explaining itself in a different language.
The surfaces carry a second piece of craft. They are finished in arai-dashi, a technique in which mortar mixed with stone chips is washed back while still green so the aggregate stands proud, giving a granular, stone-like face. Here the finish is worked into patterns rather than left plain. The effect changes with the light: flat and grey at midday, textured and shadowed in the low sun of a winter afternoon.
No published record has been found giving the date, founder or dimensions of a bell hung in the tower, so it is best to go without expectations on that point and to look instead at the frame that was built to carry one.
Getting There and What You Can See
Only the exterior of the Jūryōji bell tower is open to view. There is no admission charge and no ticket office, because there is no visitor facility; the tower stands in the grounds of a working parish temple. Visitors should keep to the precinct paths and avoid times when a service is under way.
Kuwana Station, shared by the JR Kansai Main Line, the Kintetsu Nagoya Line and the Yōrō Railway, lies about 1.2 kilometres northwest, some twenty minutes on foot.
A photograph of the exterior has a practical use. The Mie Prefecture Architects Association issued heritage trading cards for registered properties across the prefecture, four of them for Kuwana buildings, including this bell tower and the former Daikokuden in the same precinct. Show your own photograph at the counter of the Kuwana Ishidori Kaikan (Kyōmachi 16, free admission, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed Mondays, the day after public holidays and over the New Year) and staff will give you the card for that building. The scheme started around 2017 with 2,000 cards per building, so it is worth telephoning to check availability before building a trip around it.
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Q&A
- Can visitors see the Jūryōji bell tower, and is there an admission charge?
- The exterior can be viewed from within the temple precinct and there is no admission charge, since no visitor facility exists. Interior access is not offered and no opening hours have been announced. Jūryōji is an active parish temple, so it is best to avoid times when services are being held.
- Where is the Jūryōji bell tower, and how do I reach it from Kuwana Station?
- It stands in the southern part of the Jūryōji precinct at Tenma-chō, Kuwana City, Mie Prefecture, on the line of the old Tōkaidō about 1.5 kilometres south of the Shichiri no Watashi ferry site. From Kuwana Station, served by JR, Kintetsu and Yōrō Railway lines, the walk southeast covers roughly 1.2 kilometres and takes about twenty minutes.
- What makes the Jūryōji bell tower architecturally significant?
- It combines a traditional temple form with a structural language that timber cannot produce. The plan is one bay square and the roof is pyramidal, both standard for Japanese bell towers, but the openings are spanned by concrete arches and the surfaces finished in patterned exposed aggregate. The Agency for Cultural Affairs treats it as indispensable evidence for the spread of reinforced-concrete technique in this part of Mie Prefecture.
- Is the Jūryōji bell tower an original pre-war building?
- Yes. It dates from around 1935 and came through the 1945 air raids that destroyed most of the temple. Only this tower and the neighbouring former Daikokuden, both of reinforced concrete, remained standing. Both were entered in the national register on the same day in June 2013.
- Is photography permitted at the Jūryōji bell tower?
- Exterior photography from the precinct is not restricted, and it earns you something: showing your own photograph at the Kuwana Ishidori Kaikan counter gets you the heritage trading card issued for this building by the Mie Prefecture Architects Association. As at any temple, avoid photographing worshippers or interrupting a service.
Basic Information
| Name | Bell Tower of Jūryōji (寿量寺鐘楼) |
|---|---|
| Location | 2363 Tenma-chō, Ōaza Kuwana, Kuwana City, Mie Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structures), registration no. 24-0155, 75th round of listings |
| Year Designated | 2013 (registered 21 June) |
| Quantity | 1 structure |
| Dimensions | Area 7.5 sq m (Agency for Cultural Affairs); Kuwana City records 7.47 sq m. One bay square, pyramidal roof. |
| Owner | Jūryōji (religious corporation) |
| Public Access | Exterior viewing only; no admission charge or set opening hours. Reinforced concrete, built c. 1935. |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Jūryōji Shōrō
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00009622
- Cultural Heritage Online — Jūryōji Shōrō
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/229398
- Mie Prefecture Museums and Archives — Ishidori Kaikan
- https://www.bunka.pref.mie.lg.jp/kennai/kennaiDetail?id=835751
- Mie Prefecture — Registered Cultural Properties
- https://www.bunka.pref.mie.lg.jp/bunkazai/49833039806.htm
- National Council for the Utilisation of Modernisation Heritage — Heritage Cards for Kuwana City
- https://www.zenkin.jp/news/3594
Last verified: 2026.08.10