Registered Tangible Cultural Properties · Chiba

Mogi Honke Residence Former Gatekeeper's Lodge

Mogi Honke Residence Former Gatekeeper's Lodge: A 1926 Gate Post

A small gatekeeper's lodge of 1926 inside the gate of a Noda soy brewer's estate: a hipped roof, iron-sheet eaves, a six-mat room and an earthen entrance. Private.

Designation Registered Tangible Cultural Properties

Location Chiba

The Gatekeeper's Post Inside the Main Gate

The Mogi Honke Residence Former Gatekeeper's Lodge (茂木本家住宅旧門番棟, Mogi Honke Jūtaku Kyū-Monbantō) in Noda, Chiba Prefecture, is a small single-storey timber lodge built in 1926 for the gatekeeper of the Mogi Shichizaemon soy sauce brewing family's estate, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 15 January 2010. Its building area is 21 square metres.

It stands just inside the Main Gate, between the gate and the Former Rice Storehouse, the first building anyone coming through the Main Gate would pass. The Agency for Cultural Affairs values it as a surviving example of a gatekeeper's post.

A Hipped Roof and a Six-Mat Room

The roof is Yosemune-zukuri, hipped on all four sides, with its ridge running north to south and Sangawara-buki pantiles above a skirt of iron-sheet eaves that wraps the whole building. The plan is 5.5 metres by 3.6 metres.

The walls are plastered in Shikkui, with a dado of Shitami-itabari clapboard. Windows and the door open on the east side.

Inside, the south end is a six-mat living room and the north end holds the entrance and a Doma earth-floored area. The Mogi Honke Residence Former Gatekeeper's Lodge is room enough for a gatekeeper to stay on duty and to live, and it records, in a plan you could draw on a postcard, a way of running a large house that has all but disappeared.

Visiting

The lodge is inside a private estate, and the grounds are closed. It stands just behind the Main Gate, but how much of it can be seen from outside the gate has not been confirmed.

Please do not photograph through gaps in the gate or fence into the house. Directions are on the Mogi Honke Residence page.

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Q&A

QCan I visit the Mogi Honke Residence Former Gatekeeper's Lodge?: ANo. It is inside a private home, and the grounds are closed.

QWhat was the Mogi Honke Residence Former Gatekeeper's Lodge used for?: AIt housed the estate's gatekeeper. The Agency for Cultural Affairs regards it as an example of a gatekeeper's post.

QWhen was the Mogi Honke Residence Former Gatekeeper's Lodge built?: AIn 1926, the same year as the Main Gate and the main house.

QHow big is the Mogi Honke Residence Former Gatekeeper's Lodge?: AIt is a single-storey timber building of 5.5 metres by 3.6 metres, with a building area of 21 square metres: a six-mat room to the south and an earth-floored entrance to the north.

QWhat does the Mogi Honke Residence Former Gatekeeper's Lodge look like?: AIt has a hipped pantiled roof ringed with iron-sheet eaves, plastered walls and a clapboard dado.

Basic Information

Name	Mogi Honke Residence Former Gatekeeper's Lodge (茂木本家住宅旧門番棟)
Location	242-15 Higashishitamachi, Noda City, Chiba Prefecture
Designation	Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building); registration no. 12-0132; criterion: contributing to the historic landscape of the nation
Year Designated	Registered 2010/1/15 (Heisei 22)
Quantity	1 building
Dimensions	Single-storey timber, tiled roof, building area 21 square metres, 5.5 metres by 3.6 metres
Owner	Private individual
Public Access	Not open (private home; no access to the grounds)