Jogi Nyorai Saihoji Temple Bell Tower

About the Jogi Nyorai Saihoji Temple Bell Tower

The Jogi Nyorai Saihoji Temple Bell Tower (定義如来西方寺鐘楼堂, Shōrō-dō) is an open timber belfry built in 1932 at Jogi Nyorai Saihoji Temple in Okura, Aoba Ward, Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, and it became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 27, 2018. It has a hip-and-gable (Irimoya-zukuri) roof covered in copper sheet and covers 11 square meters.

The Bell Tower stands just inside the Main Gate on the north side of the approach path. The Water Purification Pavilion faces it from the other side, so the two small buildings greet visitors as a pair once they are through the gate.

Why the Bell Tower Was Registered

The Bell Tower was registered as a model of good design. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls it a richly decorated belfry, and Miyagi Prefecture points to its curved tie beams and its diamond-lattice transoms.

Like the Sadayoshi Mausoleum Hall, it was designed by Hanawa Kikuzo of the Kesen carpenters. The temple names Hanawa Denkichi as head carpenter and Hanawa Dengoro as his deputy, the same team that built the Main Gate in the same year. A belfry exists to hang a bell, yet this one was given full bracketing and a ceiling, putting it on a par with the halls around it. That care is the core of its value.

Posts, Beams and Brackets in Layers

Four round posts, one at each corner, carry the roof of the Jogi Nyorai Saihoji Temple Bell Tower. A low tie beam near their base locks them together, and there are no walls.

Near the top of the posts, two curved tie beams run one above the other on each side. Their ends pass through the posts and finish as carved Kibana, and a flat plate rests on top. Between the upper and lower beams sit diamond-lattice transoms. The same arrangement repeats on all four sides, so the decoration is as full on the flanks as on the front.

Above the plate the bracketing is of the Degumi type, with a frog-leg strut (Kaerumata) in the middle of each side. The eaves use two layers of closely spaced rafters, and the ceiling is coffered (Gō-tenjō). The roof was first laid with wooden shingles (Kokerabuki) and is now copper. Repairs followed in 1957 and 1985.

According to the temple, the bell was cast in Kyoto. It stands about 180 centimeters tall, measures about 100 centimeters across and weighs about 320 kilograms. A lay association called the Sendai Keishinko presented it on May 16, 1933, the year after the tower went up.

Visiting the Bell Tower

Because the Bell Tower has no walls, you can see its whole frame from the path. Look straight up and the layers stack in order: the two tie beams with the lattice between them, then the brackets, then the coffered ceiling. From the pavilion side of the path, an angled view lets you compare the front and the side at once.

The temple's guide to the grounds asks anyone striking the bell to do so gently and with a calm mind. It does not say when visitors may ring it or how many times, so check at the temple office first. The temple gives the gate hours of this precinct as 8:00 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.

No photography rules are posted for the Bell Tower, though the temple bans drone photography without permission.