I presented two months ago the unusual, turtle-shaped temple Fukusai-ji, a Nagasaki mausoleum for the Japanese soldiers who died during the World War II. The temple’s bell tower, that sounds every day at 11:02 (the time when the atomic bomb was dropped over Nagasaki in 1945) is also an interesting piece of architecture, very different from the classical Japanese Buddhist shōrō (bell tower).

Usually, shōrō is a dedicated construction housing the bell, sometimes without walls, but always with a roof. In other cases, the bell is housed inside a Romon type of gate, a variant that probably inspired the architect to create this modern solution, with the bell supported by arches positioned over the temple’s gate.

Bell Tower, Fukusai-ji Temple, Nagasaki

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Yesterday’s Japan Photo: Old Japanese stories, the Shinto Chinowa