Great Bell at Chionin Temple

This print depicts the bronze bell of Chion-in, the head temple of the Jodo-shu sect located in the Higashiyama district of Kyoto. Cast in 1636, the bell is housed within a dedicated wooden bell tower (shoro) on the temple grounds, and the massive scale of both bell and supporting timber framework typically dominates compositions of this subject. [Shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) designers approaching this motif generally framed the bell tower at an angle that revealed the heavy crossbeams and the suspended bronze form, often incorporating surrounding cedars or stone steps to establish depth. The technical demands of such a print would have called for careful registration across multiple blocks to render the patinated surface of the bronze, with [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations describing the recessed shadows beneath the tower roof. The subject fits within the wider shin-hanga interest in documenting major Buddhist sites of Kyoto and Nara, a category Nomura returned to repeatedly. Like other meisho prints of his recorded output, the work places architectural specificity at the center of the composition rather than treating the temple as background to figural activity.