Saito Family Residence Gateposts

A Stone Entrance on the Old Highway

The Saito Family Residence Gateposts (齋藤家住宅門柱, Saitō-ke Jūtaku Monchū) form the late Meiji period (1898 to 1912) stone front entrance on the eastern side of the Saito family compound in Funatsucho, Sabae City, Fukui Prefecture, opening onto the old Hokuriku Road, and were registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on November 29, 2016, under number 18-0164. The entrance is 2.8 metres wide and consists of main posts and rear support posts of Shakudani stone.

The main posts rise to 3.1 metres, their tops cut into stepped profiles as ornament. There are no doors and no roof: the gateway announces itself through the sheer size of the posts and the texture of the stone.

Why It Was Registered

The Saito Family Residence Gateposts were registered for contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that, among the Shakudani stone gateposts found here and there across Fukui Prefecture, these are exceptionally large, and that they show the standing of an old family.

Shakudani stone is a green tuff quarried around Mount Asuwa in Fukui City. It turns a deeper blue when wet, which earned it the name Echizen aoishi, or Echizen blue stone. Soft and easy to carve, it was used across the Fukui area for everything from the walls of Fukui Castle onward, though it is no longer quarried today. Posts 3.1 metres tall would have required blocks of considerable size.

Standing at the eastern edge of the property beside the rice storehouse, the gateposts and that late Edo storehouse together make up the face the Saito household showed to the road.

What to Look For

Look up at the tops of the main posts. The stepped caps give them a shaped outline rather than leaving them as plain square pillars.

Then note the rear support posts behind them, also of Shakudani stone, which steady the tall main posts and complete the entrance. The stone looks noticeably bluer when wet, so the gateposts change character with the weather.

Visiting

Facing the old Hokuriku Road, the gateposts can be seen from the public street. Beyond them lies a private home, so do not walk through the gateway.

Photograph from the road and keep clear of residents and vehicles coming and going. Directions are on the Saito Family Residence page.