Senoue Shimanuki Main Family Residence Gate and Earthen Wall

About the Senoue Shimanuki Main Family Residence Gate and Earthen Wall

The Senoue Shimanuki Main Family Residence Gate and Earthen Wall (瀬上嶋貫本家住宅門及び土塀, Senoue Shimanuki Honke Jūtaku Mon oyobi Dobei) is a garden wall running from the north-east corner of the main house along the road, together with a small Udekimon gate set toward its south end, on the Shimanuki head family estate in Senoue-machi, Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture, built in the mid-Meiji era (1883 to 1897) and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2013.

The gate of the Senoue Shimanuki Main Family Residence Gate and Earthen Wall is 1.9 metres wide and the wall 13 metres long in total. After following the road, the wall turns at a right angle to enclose the main garden. The database lists both gate and wall as timber with tiled roofs: in other words a timber-framed, plastered wall.

Matching the Main House

Gate and wall share a narrow gabled coping roof of sangawara pantiles.

The street face is the part to study. A small drip ledge (mizukiri) runs along the wall at waist height. Below it, the bays between the posts are clad in clapboard (Shitami-itabari); above it, the wall is white Shikkui plaster. The same clapboard covers the highway gable of the main house, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that the wall was designed to match. Seen from the road, the boarded line of the house carries on into the wall.

On the garden side the wall is plastered all over. Outward it shows timber in step with the house; inward it offers a plain white backdrop for the garden.

A Frame for the Main Garden

The agency describes the Senoue Shimanuki Main Family Residence Gate and Earthen Wall as the gate and wall that set the scene around the main garden. Registered for its contribution to the historic landscape, the work does two jobs at once: on the street it extends the frontage begun by the main house, and inside it becomes the white wall around the garden.

An udekimon carries its small roof on arms (udeki) projecting fore and aft from the posts, a modest type. At 1.9 metres this gate is a step down from the yakuimon front gate, and the difference in form matches the difference in use: a formal entrance on the highway, and a side gate into the garden.

Seeing the Senoue Shimanuki Main Family Residence Gate and Earthen Wall

Because the wall runs along the road, the clapboard and plaster of its outer face can be seen from the street. Whether you see the plastered garden side depends on whether a tour enters the garden. The official site shows photos of the south, west and inner gardens but does not say which one the Senoue Shimanuki Main Family Residence Gate and Earthen Wall encloses.

Visits to the estate are by reservation only; ask about the garden and about photography when booking. Directions are on the Senoue Shimanuki Main Family Residence page.