Jojakkoji Joya no Kane 2026

Before you go

The bell tower at Jojakko-ji dates from the Kan'ei era, but the bell hanging in it today is a replacement.

The earlier bell was requisitioned during the Second World War and lost. The present bell was cast in 1973 to an acoustic design by Dr Ichiro Aoki, tuned to the old kogitsu pitch known as ōshōchō. The tower itself was built by Nichisen, the temple's fourth head priest. On ordinary days the bell is struck a set number of times at noon and in the evening; on the last night of the year, visitors ring it in arrival order until the 108th strike.

The temple stands on Mount Ogura in Sagano, a district where imperial and aristocratic families kept villas from the Heian period onward. Jojakko-ji was founded in the Keichō era by Nisshin, the sixteenth head priest of Honkoku-ji. Its main hall is the guest hall of Fushimi Momoyama Castle, moved here with the support of Kobayakawa Hideaki, and the Niomon gate, moved in 1616 from Honkoku-ji, carries guardian statues said to be the work of Unkei. North of the gate, the grounds hold a site said to be that of Fujiwara no Teika's mountain villa. After the retired Emperor Gosaga transplanted cherries from Yoshino to Arashiyama, Arashiyama became known for blossom and Mount Ogura for autumn leaves and deer. Among the temple's treasures is a small portable koto, a kurumagoto, granted by Emperor Takakura to the lady Kogō no Tsubone and later presented to the temple by Kobayakawa Hideaki; it is not shown to the public. West of the pagoda stands a song mound for the poet Kinoshita Chōshōshi, who exchanged poems with the founder Nisshin, himself known as a poet, and the pagoda itself once received an imperial plaque from the retired Emperor Reigen. On this night the bell sounds from the temple on Mount Ogura's flank, and the ringers stand between a main hall brought from Momoyama Castle and a gate built in the Jōwa era.