Sakai Family Residence Side Gate and Southwest Wall

About the Sakai Family Residence Side Gate and Southwest Wall

The Sakai Family Residence Side Gate and Southwest Wall (酒井家住宅通用門及び南西塀, Sakai-ke Jūtaku Tsūyōmon oyobi Nansei-bei) is a reinforced-concrete gate and wall built around 1951 in Rakuma, Maruoka-cho, Sakai City, Fukui Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2025.

The Side Gate and Southwest Wall is made up of a service gate on the southwest face of the estate and the wall that continues from it. The gate is 1.5 m wide and the wall 27 m long. Of the estate's gates and walls, this is the only one built after the war and the only one in reinforced concrete.

A Postwar Front on the Street

The Sakai Family Residence Side Gate and Southwest Wall was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that gate and wall together give the street a historic look.

It dates from about the same time as the Shinzashiki guest wing. Its materials and character differ from the timber main and south gates, but it shows, in a form anyone passing can see, that the family kept adding to the estate into the mid-Shōwa years.

Washed Finish and an Iron Arch

The gate is finished in araidashi, a washed mortar technique: the surface is rinsed before the mortar fully sets, exposing the small stones in the mix and leaving a pebbly, stone-like skin.

An iron bar bent into an arch links the tops of the two gateposts, and an iron door closes the opening. Concrete and iron alone make a clean, simple gate.

The southwest wall is finished in sprayed mortar, while its sill, posts and coping are picked out in washed mortar. The frame of a timber wall is thus reproduced in concrete and outlined by the change of texture: that contrast is the detail to look for.

Seeing the Sakai Family Residence Side Gate and Southwest Wall

The Side Gate and Southwest Wall belongs to a private home and you cannot enter through the gate (checked October 2026). It faces the street, so it can presumably be seen from the road; if you stop, keep out of the way of traffic and do not disturb the residents.

The history and layout of the estate are on the Sakai Family Residence (Maruoka) page.