What Is the Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) Nagayamon Gate?
The Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) Nagayamon Gate (加藤家住宅（茂原牡丹園）長屋門, Katō-ke Jūtaku Nagayamon) is a thatched Nagayamon gatehouse built in 1837 in Yamazaki, Mobara City, Chiba Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 1 July 2003. It stands south of the main house as a single-storey timber building with a Yosemune-zukuri hipped roof of Kayabuki thatch, covering 79 square meters.
A nagayamon is a gateway built into a long, low building with rooms on either side of the passage. This one can be dated precisely because its ridge tablet, the board carpenters nailed up under the roof to record the job, survives. The Chiba Prefectural Board of Education notes that the tablet fixes construction to the eighth year of Tenpo, 1837. That makes the Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) Nagayamon Gate the one building on the property with a documented date.
A Retirement Room and a Storeroom
The Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) Nagayamon Gate is seven and a half bays long and two and a half bays deep. West of the passage was once an inkyo-beya, the room where a retired head of the household lived after handing the family over to his heir; the east side served as a storeroom. The retired generation, in other words, lived at the gate rather than in the main house.
Its length of seven and a half bays matches the main house exactly. The gatehouse is one bay shallower, but turn around in the forecourt and you see two thatched roofs of the same length making up the homestead.
Board Skirting and White Plaster
The lower walls are clad in sasarako-shitami: overlapping horizontal boards held in place by vertical battens notched to fit each step of the boards, so the battens show a sawtooth profile. Above them the walls are finished in white Shikkui lime plaster. A single level line divides the boards from the plaster, and the deep thatched eaves sit on top.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs registered the Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) Nagayamon Gate as number 12-0050 for its contribution to the historic landscape, as one part, with the main house, of the Kazusa countryside scene.
Visiting the Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) Nagayamon Gate
During the spring opening, the Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) Nagayamon Gate is the entrance to the peony garden, and every visitor walks through it. Its rooms are sometimes used as a gallery; in 2024 they held oil paintings and prints of peonies. Exhibitions are not held every year.
Look at the notched board cladding from the outside before you pass through. In April, azaleas and snowball viburnum flower beside the gate, under the edge of the thatch. No viewing outside the opening season is offered.
Q&A
- When was the Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) Nagayamon Gate built?
- In 1837. A surviving ridge tablet records the date.
- What were the rooms in the Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) Nagayamon Gate used for?
- The west side was a retirement room for the former head of the household, and the east side was a storeroom.
- When was the Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) Nagayamon Gate registered as a cultural property?
- On 1 July 2003, together with the main house, as part of the rural Kazusa landscape they form together.
- When can I see the Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) Nagayamon Gate?
- During the peony garden's spring opening. The gate is the garden entrance, so you walk through it on the way in.
- What is distinctive about the walls of the Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) Nagayamon Gate?
- The lower walls are boarded with notched vertical battens, the upper walls are white lime plaster, and a hipped thatched roof sits above.
Basic Information
| Name | Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) Nagayamon Gate (加藤家住宅（茂原牡丹園）長屋門) |
|---|---|
| Location | 210 Yamazaki, Mobara City, Chiba Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), No. 12-0050 |
| Year Designated | Registered 1 July 2003 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Single-storey timber building, thatched roof, building area 79 square meters |
| Owner | Private |
| Public Access | Open only during the spring opening (entrance to the Mobara Peony Garden) |
References
- Database of National Cultural Properties: Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) Nagayamon Gate (Agency for Cultural Affairs, in Japanese)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00003388
- Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) Main House and Gate (Chiba Prefectural Board of Education, in Japanese)
- https://www.pref.chiba.lg.jp/kyouiku/bunkazai/bunkazai/q111-052.html
- Peonies in the Garden of a Thatched Farmhouse: Mobara Peony Garden (Chibagoto, in Japanese)
- https://chibagoto.jp/matome.php?id=5134
Last verified: 2026.09.29
