Kawarada Family Residence Rear Gate and Fence

A Wall That Steps Down the Slope

At the center of the southern edge of the Kawarada property in Nagoya's Showa Ward, the ground falls away, and the back wall built in 1938 (Showa 13) answers that fall by changing height in three stages as it runs. The effect is a wall that descends in measured steps rather than holding a single line, keeping pace with the land it sits on. Like the front composition, it carries a pantiled roof on projecting bracket arms above its timber body, and it reaches about 15 meters in total length.

The back gate is set into this run but pulled back slightly inside the wall line, so it sits a step away from the street rather than flush with it. Its opening is closed by sliding doors and measures roughly 1.7 meters across, narrower than the formal gate at the front. The gate's roof is made continuous with the wall and sweeps down toward the inner side of the grounds, binding the two into one form.

The residence behind this wall stands on the Yagoto hills, in a district laid out in the late Taisho and early Showa years as a green garden suburb. The front of such a house faced the road with ceremony; the back was where the household came and went. The back gate and wall were built to keep that rear edge of the estate in good order while still belonging visually to the whole.

Why the Back Gate and Wall Were Registered

The back gate and wall were listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 3 April 2020, under registration number 23-0544. As with the rest of the residence, the recorded criterion is that the structure contributes to the historic landscape of the country. This is Japan's lighter heritage category, designed to keep occupied buildings in use while acknowledging their worth, and it sits apart from the firmer designations reserved for National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties.

The back gate and wall form one of the four registered elements of the Kawarada Residence, together with the 1937 main house, the front gate and wall, and the stone retaining wall. What this rear composition adds is a quieter counterpart to the formal front. Where the front announces the house to the street, the back tends to the slope and the service approach, and it does so with the same care: a roof unified with the wall, transoms used as decoration, and a stepped profile shaped by the terrain.

What to Look For on a Visit

The back gate and wall sit on the boundary at the south of the site, so they can be followed from the lane outside. The first thing to watch is the wall's profile. As the ground drops, the wall drops with it in three distinct stages, and tracing those steps along its length is the clearest way to read how the builders fitted the structure to the hill.

Look then at the gate itself, recessed a little behind the wall. Its sliding doors and modest 1.7-meter width mark it as a working entrance rather than a ceremonial one. The roof does something worth noticing: instead of standing apart, it continues from the wall and sweeps down toward the garden side, so gate and wall read as a single sheltering form.

Finally, find the transoms. The back gate and the wall to its east are finished with decorative ranma, the open panels usually associated with the inside of a house. Used here on an outer wall, they lend the rear of the estate a finish more careful than a plain back fence would suggest.