Maniji Bell Tower

What is the Maniji Bell Tower?

The Maniji Bell Tower (摩尼寺鐘楼, Maniji Shōrō) is a temple belfry built in 1892 just east of the main gate of Maniji Temple in Kakuji, Tottori City, Tottori Prefecture, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on December 19, 2014.

It is a small, open structure, one bay square, with no walls between its four posts and a hip-and-gable (Irimoya-zukuri) roof of interlocking pantiles (Sangawara-buki). The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives its area as 16 square meters. A temple bell (Bonshō) hangs from a beam laid across the middle.

The date comes from the temple's property register, which records the bell tower under 1892. According to a 2015 survey report by Tottori University of Environmental Studies, that was three years after the main gate was rebuilt in 1889, and the ground in front of the gate was evidently prepared in between before the Maniji Bell Tower went up.

Why the Maniji Bell Tower was registered

The tower was entered in the 79th round of registrations as number 31-0196, under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The agency's description stresses that, together with the main gate, it forms the front of the precinct. When you reach the top of the steps, the gate and this bell tower beside it are the first buildings you see.

The frame is easiest to read from the ground up, following the agency's description. Four square posts with finely chamfered corners stand on stone bases, and they lean inward as they rise, a technique called Uchikorobi. Tie beams at three levels lock them together: one near the feet, one at mid-height and one at the top, with carved ends, under a flat plate. Three-part bracket sets with bearing blocks carry the beams, and a frog-leg strut (Kaerumata) sits at the center of each side.

Part of an older belfry may survive in the Maniji Bell Tower. The survey found that the spirals carved on the beam ends (Kibana) are rounder than those on the main hall and gate, a slightly earlier style. An illustrated guide of 1858 shows a smaller bell tower at the temple, and the survey suggests the 1892 builders reused some of its timbers.

The site has a history of its own. The survey reads this corner plot as part of the ground gained when row-house-like buildings beside the old gate were cleared. The Meiji-era work in front of the gate created the paired gate and bell tower that greet visitors now.

What to look for at the Maniji Bell Tower

The Maniji Bell Tower stands on a raised base of cut stone. Seen from below, its steeply raked posts make it look tall and long-legged, the impression the survey team also recorded, and quite unlike the squat little belfry in the 1858 picture.

To see the lean for yourself, stand back from one side and follow the line of the posts. The gap between them narrows slightly from the base to the top.

Then look up under the eaves. There is a single tier of rafters, and no ceiling, so the rafters are exposed from inside. Compare the frog-leg struts and the beam-end spirals with the carving on the main hall and gate, and the rounder curves become easy to spot.

Mt. Mani once had a second bell tower. According to the survey, a prewar postcard shows one at the summit beside Tateiwa, facing a hall to Enma. That tower has since been dismantled, and its old timbers lie stacked on a terrace near the rock.

Visiting the Maniji Bell Tower

The Maniji Bell Tower stands on the corner at the top of the steps, east of the main gate, and its exterior can be seen freely during the temple's visiting hours, which the official website gives as 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Because it is open on all four sides, you can study the joinery and the bell from any angle. Look at it once from the top of the steps before you pass through the gate, and again from inside the precinct.

Neither the temple's website nor the city's tourism pages say whether visitors may ring the bell or take photographs, so ask at the temple office if you would like to strike it. Mind your footing at the edge of the stone base. Directions and general visiting information are on the Maniji Temple page.