Kokuryu Sake Brewery East Gate

What Is the Kokuryu Sake Brewery East Gate?

The Kokuryu Sake Brewery East Gate (黒龍酒造東門, Kokuryū Shuzō Higashimon) is an early Showa period Udekimon gate in Matsuoka Kasuga, Eiheiji-cho, Fukui Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on July 25, 2011.

It stands on the brewery's head-office lot, facing Honmachi Street across the south garden of the annex. At 2.7 m wide it is a small gate set beside the long front of the store and main house, and with those two buildings it makes up the head-office compound.

How the Gate Is Put Together

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the central 1.6 m of the Kokuryu Sake Brewery East Gate's 2.7 m width forms the doorway, hung with a pair of board doors. Side walls flank the opening, boarded at the base and finished above in black Shikkui plaster.

The roof is gabled and laid with pantiles. Between the eave beam and the Kabuki lintel there is a boarded soffit, and the Taruki rafters are spaced widely apart, a pattern called mabara-daruki. Stand in front of the gate and look up to see the boarded soffit and the open rhythm of the rafters.

The gate was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. Facing the street directly, it shares with the store and main house in forming the street front of Honmachi Street.

Stone, Black Walls and Red Timber

What the agency singles out at the Kokuryu Sake Brewery East Gate is a contrast of colors and materials: the Shakudani stone base, the black walls, and timberwork painted with Bengara red ochre. It calls the combination striking.

It helps to look in order. At your feet, check the color of the stone base. At eye level, follow the change from the boarded lower walls to the black plaster above. Then look up from the lintel to the eaves, where the red of the timber stands out between the black walls and the tiles. Stone, plaster and wood are stacked in three layers from the ground up.

Visiting the Kokuryu Sake Brewery East Gate

Because the Kokuryu Sake Brewery East Gate faces Honmachi Street, its exterior can be seen from the street. Behind the doors lies the annex's south garden, and there is no announcement that visitors may enter the garden or the annex. The doors and side walls can be viewed calmly from the street side.

No photography policy is published. Directions and shop hours are on the Kokuryu Sake Brewery page.