Yamaguchi Family Residence Front Gate

What the Yamaguchi Family Residence Front Gate Is

The Yamaguchi Family Residence Front Gate (山口家住宅表門, Yamaguchi-ke Jūtaku Omotemon) is a timber gate of 1908 in the town of Kanie, Aichi Prefecture, added to the national list of Registered Tangible Cultural Property holdings on 26 January 2011 (Heisei 23). It has a tiled roof and an opening 3.8 meters wide, and the walls flanking it are covered by the same listing.

The gate stands toward the eastern end of the compound's southern boundary. Its type is called udegimon: brackets project sideways from the two main posts and carry the roof above them. Unlike a Nagayamon, which houses rooms on either side of the passage, this form is a roof over an opening and little more. Short wing walls run out from each side.

There is a main opening at the centre and a smaller side door to the east, each hung with a pair of boarded leaves. The eaves use a single tier of widely spaced Taruki rafters, and the roof is Kirizuma-zukuri laid in Sangawara-buki tile. The wing walls are earth-plastered with boarding along the lower part to take the splash of rain.

Listed on Different Grounds

The Yamaguchi Family Residence Front Gate carries registration number 23-0332, and the criterion cited for it is that the building contributes to the historic character of the landscape. The main house and the tea room on the same plot were listed under a different criterion, as models of their form. The gate was judged on how it reads from the street rather than on its own refinement.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that the gate, together with the planting in the front garden, composes the face the household presents outward. That is a fair description of what it does. Standing on the boundary between the compound and the road, the gate is the one part of the property that is always in public view.

This is registration rather than designation, two systems Japan keeps separate. The late Edo period main house and the tea room of 1893 were entered on the same day, but each building was registered individually with its own number. The gate is the youngest of the three.

What to Look For

At 3.8 meters the opening is not wide. The gate reads as substantial anyway, and that comes from how the roof is thrown out. The brackets push the eaves clear of the posts, the single tier of rafters marches across at even spacing, and the tiled Kirizuma-zukuri roof settles low over the whole thing.

Look for the two openings side by side. The larger central one takes people and goods, the smaller one to the east is the everyday door, and both are hung with boarded leaves. One gate, two ways through, sized for two different kinds of arrival.

The boarding along the base of the wing walls is there to protect earth plaster from rain splash, but it also draws a horizontal band across the front, the texture switching from timber to plaster at knee height. Of the three listed buildings on this plot, the Yamaguchi Family Residence Front Gate is the one you can actually stand and look at.

Visiting the Yamaguchi Family Residence Front Gate

The Yamaguchi Family Residence Front Gate belongs to a private house and there is no public opening. You cannot pass through it into the grounds. The gate itself faces the road along the southern edge of the plot, so the exterior can be seen from the public street, and of the three listed buildings here it is the one worth making the walk for.

Keep photography to what is visible from the road. Approaching the doors or looking into the grounds is not on, since people live behind them. The area in front of the gate is in daily use, so stand clear of the way and keep it brief.

The address is 4-215 Shiro, Kanie, Ama District, Aichi Prefecture. Kanie Station on the Kintetsu Nagoya Line is about 5 minutes on foot; Kanie Station on the JR Kansai Main Line is about 20 minutes.

The Kanie Town Museum of History and Folklore at 1-214 Shiro, Kanie (telephone 0567-95-3812) puts the town's listed buildings in context. It opens from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., closes Mondays and from December 29 to January 3, and admission is free. Its cultural property guide map covers the Yamaguchi Family Residence Front Gate along with the rest.