Zenkoji Temple Bell Tower

A six-pillar bell tower beside the Main Hall

The Zenkoji Temple Bell Tower (善光寺鐘楼, Zenkō-ji Shōrō) in Motoyoshi-cho, Nagano City, is a bell house rebuilt in 1853 at the southeast corner of the temple's Main Hall, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 17, 2020.

It stands open on all sides on a platform of dressed stone, under an Irimoya-zukuri hip-and-gable roof covered in cypress bark. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records its area as 33 square meters. Walking north up the approach, it is the small roofed structure you see on your right just before the Main Hall.

Count the posts. A Japanese Shōrō usually rests on four, one at each corner. The Zenkoji Bell Tower has six, and the temple explains the number as a reference to the six characters of the nenbutsu prayer, Na-mu-a-mi-da-butsu.

How the Zenkoji Bell Tower is built

The tie beams that lock the post heads together run out past the posts, and their projecting ends are carved as lions. The eaves use two tiers of rafters, and at the corners the rafters fan out like the ribs of a folding fan, a technique called ogi-daruki. A beam slung across the central bay carries the Bonshō, the great temple bell.

The database dates the building to 1853 and records a repair in 1926. According to the temple, that 1926 work replaced a tiled roof with the present cypress bark. The soft, layered roofline you see is therefore not original to the building but the result of the Taisho-era renovation.

Why the Zenkoji Bell Tower was registered

The Zenkoji Bell Tower was registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The agency's description notes the six posts and lion-carved beam ends, then stresses its place beside the Main Hall as part of what defines that corner of the precinct.

The point makes more sense when you look at both buildings together. Southeast of the Main Hall's enormous bark roof sits a small hip-and-gable roof in the same material. Once the 1926 work matched the materials, the two buildings began to read as a single scene.

A bell older than its tower

The bell itself is nearly two centuries older than the tower around it. The temple says it was first cast in 1632 at the wish of a patron named Takahashi Byakuren, lost in a fire in 1642, and recast in 1667. It is recognized as an Important Art Object under a prewar listing. The registration covers the tower only, not the bell.

The bell marks the hour every day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. In February 1998 its sound was broadcast around the world at the opening ceremony of the Nagano Winter Olympics.

What to look for at the Zenkoji Bell Tower

Seen straight on, the posts overlap and the count is easy to miss. Step around to a corner and all six come into view. Then look up: the carved lions on the beam ends face outward in every direction.

Arrive a few minutes before the hour and you can watch the bell being struck. The hum carries a long way, well past the front of the Main Hall. For the fanned rafters, stand under a corner of the eaves.

Visiting the Zenkoji Bell Tower

The Zenkoji Bell Tower stands in the open precinct, so you can see it at any time without a ticket. Visitors may not climb onto the platform or ring the bell on ordinary days.

The one chance to strike it comes on January 7: from 2:00 a.m., before the Nanakusa-e service, the hitoyose no kane is rung, and the temple says anyone may join without booking. Zenkoji treats its grounds as private land and asks that photographs used for news or publication be cleared with the temple office in advance. Directions and ticket details for the whole temple are on the Zenkoji Temple page.