Kondo Family Residence Nagayamon Gate

A Tall Gatehouse Signed by Its Carpenter

The Kondo Family Residence Nagayamon Gate (近藤家住宅長屋門) is the nagayamon gatehouse of a farmstead of 1907 in Shimoshizu Shinden, Yotsukaido City, Chiba Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on November 8, 2004 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a single-storey timber gatehouse with a tiled roof and a building area of 50 square metres; registration number 12-0061.

A Gate Set Back from the Road

The Kondo Family Residence Nagayamon Gate stands east of the main house, set back a little from the road, with its ridge running north to south (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It is a single-storey timber building 9 by 2 and a half bays, under a hipped roof of pantiles.

The gateway opens in the middle, with storerooms and similar spaces to the north and south (Agency for Cultural Affairs). That is the classic nagayamon arrangement: a long range of outbuildings with the entrance passage cut through it, forming the public face of a well-to-do farmstead.

An ink inscription on the hamaya, the ceremonial arrow mounted when the ridgepole was raised, names the builder: "made by the carpenter Yamakawa Isaburo" (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The gate dates from 1907, a year before the main house.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency registered the gate as a model of design and singles out its tall proportions. Knowing the name of the carpenter who built it adds to its value as a record.

What to Look For

Look for the height of the building. Nine bays long under a hipped roof, it rises high on the road side, with the gateway at its centre dividing the storerooms to north and south (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

The nagayamon gate is on the road side of the homestead, though set back from it. It is the gate of a private home, and no official information on access was found; please do not pass through it into the grounds.