Yabuki Family Residence Garden Gate and Inner Wall

About the Yabuki Family Residence Garden Gate and Inner Wall

The Yabuki Family Residence Garden Gate and Inner Wall (矢吹家住宅庭門及び内塀, Yabuki-ke Jūtaku Niwamon oyobi Uchibei) is a gate and fence of the early Showa era (1926 to 1945) that divide the gardens inside the Yabuki family estate in Narukawa, Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture. It was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2015.

The Yabuki Family Residence Garden Gate and Inner Wall comes in two parts. One is a fence that runs from the northwest corner of the new storehouse and turns toward the main house, separating the front garden from the main garden. The other, behind the main house, is a garden gate with its own fence dividing an inner court from the rear garden. The gate is 1.6 metres wide and the fences total 28 metres, all timber with sheet-metal coping.

A Gate Built of Logs

The garden gate of the Yabuki Family Residence Garden Gate and Inner Wall is a gabled Udekimon, a simple gate whose eaves rest on brackets set into the posts. Here everything, posts, frame and eaves alike, is made of unsawn round logs.

Leaving the logs round rather than squaring them is a device long favoured around tea rooms and gardens in the sukiya manner. Where the zelkova front gate is weighty and formal, this one is light, a gate that belongs to a garden.

Boards on One Face, Cedar Bark on the Other

The fence is faced with boards on its outer side and with cedar bark on its inner side, so the same screen shows a neat board face one way and a rustic bark face the other.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the Yabuki Family Residence Garden Gate and Inner Wall as lending both dignity and colour to the gardens. It was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property for its contribution to the historic landscape.

Front garden, main garden, inner court, rear garden: the Agency's descriptions name four garden spaces on the estate, and this gate and fence draw the lines between them. The rear garden behind the house is the one the new zashiki opens onto when its storm shutters are drawn back.

Seeing the Yabuki Family Residence Garden Gate and Inner Wall

The Yabuki Family Residence Garden Gate and Inner Wall lies inside the estate and is probably almost impossible to see from the road. No public openings could be found (checked October 2026).

Standing at the front gate, the fence running in from the new storehouse would be to the left and further inside. Please do not step through the gate to look for the Yabuki Family Residence Garden Gate and Inner Wall; photograph only from the public road. Directions are on the Yabuki Family Residence page.