Komachi Sake Brewery Gate and Wall

A U-shaped wall and gate around the garden

The Komachi Sake Brewery Gate and Wall (小町酒造門及び塀, Komachi Shuzō Mon oyobi Hei) in Sohara Ibukicho, Kakamigahara City, Gifu Prefecture, is a gate and wall built in the early Shōwa period (1926 onward) at the Komachi Sake Brewery, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2008/04/18 (registration number 21-0163). The wall runs in a U-shape between the shop and main house and the detached wing, enclosing the garden south of the wing, for a total length of 21 metres.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records a timber, tile-roofed gate 1.2 metres wide and a timber, tile-capped wall 21 metres long. On the east face of the wall stands an Udekimon, a gate whose Kirizuma-zukuri roof of Sangawara-buki pantiles rests on projecting arms.

Tortoiseshell stonework and a two-coloured wall

The wall rises from an Ishigaki footing of round stones laid in the Kikkōzumi pattern, the joints forming a hexagonal net like the plates of a tortoise shell. Fitting rounded stones together that tightly takes patient work.

The wall is finished differently inside and out. The street side is black Shikkui plaster above Koshiita wainscot boards, matching the black of the shop and main house and the storehouse. The garden side is a red-brown Bengara wall, seen only from within. The Agency singles out the round-stone masonry as what makes the compound memorable from outside.

What to look at

The street side of the Komachi Sake Brewery Gate and Wall can be seen from outside. Look low, where the round stones trace their tortoiseshell joints beneath the black wall.

The storehouse also stands on round stones, and comparing the two shows the same material at work around the outside of the compound. The bengara wall faces the garden and cannot be seen from the street.

Visiting

The garden and the detached wing inside the Komachi Sake Brewery Gate and Wall are part of the family home and are not open. The street side of the wall can be seen from the road. Directions from the station are on the Komachi Sake Brewery page.