An Edo Gate Standing in Front of a Taishō House
The Entrance Gate of the Matsuoka Family Residence (松岡家住宅玄関門, Matsuoka-ke Jūtaku Genkanmon, also written Matsuoka-ke Jutaku Genkanmon) is a small timber gate at Hikata in Ogori City, Fukuoka Prefecture, dated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs to 1850 and registered as a national tangible cultural property on 4 August 2015.
Everything around it is younger. The house behind was finished in 1923, the brick wall on either side was laid around 1927, and the stone pillars marking the old brewery entrance went up in the same years. The gate arrived from somewhere else and is the oldest thing on the plot by roughly seventy years.
Where it came from is a question with a traditional answer and a documentary gap. Local records say the gate was moved here from the Kuroda domain residence at Akizuki when the main house was being built, and the household calls it the Omon, the honourable gate. Ogori City's registration file is careful on the point: the construction date of the gate itself is unrecorded, and the dating rests on a ridge-end tile carrying the inscription Kaei 3, which corresponds to 1850. The national database records the year as 1850 with relocation around 1923, so both the date and the move are official positions, but the underlying evidence is one piece of fired clay.
Reading the Gate as a Piece of Carpentry
The type is a yakuimon. In this form two main pillars carry the ridge, and a second, shorter pair stands behind them to steady the frame, which puts the ridge line forward of the main posts rather than centred over them. The result is a deep overhang on the approach side, and gates of this kind were used at samurai residences, temple precincts and the houses of doctors and wealthy merchants.
This one is a single-bay example measuring 2.2 metres across the opening, under a gabled roof of pantiles. The frame is mainly camphor, a heavy and strongly scented wood that resists insects, and an unusual choice for structural work at this scale. Above the kabuki, the horizontal tie beam spanning the pillars, three rectangular beams are laid across, and these carry the sparsely spaced rafters that form the eaves.
Stand back and the composition works as a set piece. The gate faces west, directly in front of the irimoya porch of the main house, so anyone entering is aimed at the front door. The brick wall runs left and right from it, and the enclosed front garden is what the Agency for Cultural Affairs describes as the effect the gate was registered for.
The wall repays a look in its own right. It runs 89 metres in total, bending along the southern edge of the plot, and is built of slag brick in English bond on a granite base with a chiselled Edo-kiri finish. The top carries a three-course cornice and a two-course capping. At the southwest corner the bricklayer turned the plan into a curve, and that arc is the thing you notice first from the road.
Why It Was Registered, and How to See It
Registration, unlike designation, is a light-touch system for buildings roughly fifty years old or more, and it exists to keep property in use. The gate holds registration number 40-0128 and came through the 81st round. The criterion applied was contribution to the historic character of the national landscape.
It was one of five structures on this plot registered on 4 August 2015, alongside the main house, the storehouse, the brick wall and the stone gate pillars. Three years earlier Ogori City had registered the main house and this gate together as municipal registered tangible cultural property number 1, on 23 July 2012.
The site was a sake brewery. The Miyama family of Hikata built the residence in 1923, the Matsuoka family took it over before the Pacific War and brewed as Matsuoka Shuzō, and production ended during the Shōwa 30s, between 1955 and 1964. Since the mid-1960s the buildings have held a restaurant called Tobiume.
That shapes how you can see the gate. The frontage is the easiest part of this property to visit, because the wall and the gate face a public road and need no permission at all. Walking through the gate is a different matter, since it means dining at the restaurant, and Ogori City asks for reservations three days ahead with kaiseki courses from 5,720 yen. A soba lunch and a soba-making workshop are also available.
Getting there: Nishitetsu Mitsusawa Station on the Tenjin Ōmuta Line is the nearest stop, about 30 minutes from Tenjin in central Fukuoka and served by local trains only. The gate is roughly two kilometres east of the station, a walk of about half an hour on level ground. Photographing the gate and wall from the road is unproblematic; inside the grounds, other guests are usually present, so check with staff first.
Two similar names cause confusion. A different Matsuoka Family Residence, registered in 2001, stands in Asahikawa in Hokkaidō and has nothing to do with this one. Within Ogori itself, the stone gate pillars registered on the same day are a separate property from this gate; they stand at the passage entrance west of the southeast corner of the main house, a pair of granite shafts 45 centimetres square and 3.5 metres tall set 4.5 metres apart, and they marked the way into the brewery yard rather than into the residence.
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Q&A
- How old is the Matsuoka Family Residence Entrance Gate in Ogori?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to Kaei 3, or 1850, in the Edo period, and records that it was moved to its present site around 1923. Ogori City notes that the gate's actual construction date is unrecorded and that the 1850 dating comes from an inscription on a ridge-end tile.
- Where did the Matsuoka Family Residence Entrance Gate come from?
- It is said locally to have been relocated from the Kuroda domain residence at Akizuki when the main house was under construction. The family calls it the Omon. Municipal records present this as tradition rather than as a documented transfer.
- What type of gate is the Matsuoka Family Residence Entrance Gate?
- A single-bay yakuimon, 2.2 metres across the opening, with a gabled pantile roof. Two main pillars carry the ridge and a shorter rear pair steadies the frame, which sets the ridge forward of the main posts. The structural members are mainly camphor wood.
- Can I see the Matsuoka Family Residence Entrance Gate without a reservation?
- The gate and the brick wall face a public road and can be viewed and photographed from outside at any time, with no booking and no fee. Passing through the gate requires a meal reservation at Tobiume, the restaurant occupying the house, requested three days in advance.
- How do I get to the Matsuoka Family Residence Entrance Gate from Fukuoka?
- Take the Nishitetsu Tenjin Ōmuta Line from Tenjin to Mitsusawa Station, about 30 minutes, then head roughly two kilometres east. That is a walk of about half an hour across flat farmland, or a short taxi ride. Only local trains stop at Mitsusawa.
Basic Information
| Name | Matsuoka Family Residence Entrance Gate (松岡家住宅玄関門) |
|---|---|
| Location | 645-2 Nakayashiki, Hikata, Ogori City, Fukuoka Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building), registration number 40-0128, 81st round |
| Year Designated | 4 August 2015 (national registration); 23 July 2012 (Ogori City registration, with the main house) |
| Quantity | 1 structure |
| Dimensions | Timber, tiled roof, opening width 2.2 m; single-bay yakuimon, gabled pantile roof |
| Owner | Private; not published in the national database |
| Public Access | Visible from the public road at any time. Passing through requires a meal reservation at the restaurant Tobiume, requested three days ahead. |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Matsuoka Family Residence Entrance Gate
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00010699
- Cultural Heritage Online: Matsuoka Family Residence Entrance Gate
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/280193
- Cultural Heritage Online: Matsuoka Family Residence Brick Wall
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/246895
- Cultural Heritage Online: Matsuoka Family Residence Stone Gate Pillars
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/213164
- Cultural Heritage Online: Matsuoka Family Residence, main house and gate (Ogori City registration)
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/259012
- Ogori City: Matsuoka Family Residence (nationally registered building)
- https://www.city.ogori.fukuoka.jp/204/273/1829/2258
Last verified: 2026.08.25