What a shikyakumon is
A shikyakumon has two main posts with two supporting posts in front and two behind, four in all, and the Japanese name counts those supports. The ridge sits directly above the main pair.
The structure field states it in a set phrase. A gate at Kongobuji in Wakayama Prefecture is entered as a single-bay gate of this form, Kirizuma-zukuri, under Hiwadabuki.
Curved gables raise its standing. A gate at Higashi Honganji in Kyoto is recorded as a gate of this form, gabled, with curved gables front and back, flanking walls to either side, and a cypress-bark roof. The imperial messenger gate at Ninnaji, built in 1914, is described as standing east-facing before the white study, a gate of this form with curved gables front and back and hipped-and-gabled sides under cypress bark, modelled on a famous gate elsewhere, its wall surfaces and panelled doors filled with flowing Sukashibori of stylised flowers, phoenixes and arabesques.
It belongs to the more formal gates of temples and shrines, and in houses it is reserved for the principal entrance.
Distinguished from the yakuimon
The position of the ridge decides it. Here the ridge sits over the main posts and the two slopes are equal; in a Yakuimon it shifts forward and the rear slope runs longer. Whether the supporting posts stand on both sides or only behind is the other test.
Hybrids exist. The gate at the Inoue Residence in Oita Prefecture, from about 1914, is described as leading from a private lane on the south of the plot to the forecourt of the main house, joined on both sides to earthen walls, a pantiled gate of this form but with its main posts set slightly forward of the ridge in the manner of the other type. The entry reads it as the formal entrance to the property and a statement of the family's standing.
That description shows the categories are not sharply bounded. Writing that a gate is in the manner of another type is how a record conveys a composition that falls between them.
On site, look before and behind the main posts. Slender supports on both sides make this form; supports only behind make the other. Read that together with where the ridge falls.
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs: National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties (structures)
- https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkazai/shokai/yukei_kenzobutsu/kokuho_bunkazai.html
- National Cultural Properties Database: Kongobuji main quarters, a single-bay four-legged gate under cypress bark
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/102/00005535
- National Cultural Properties Database: Higashi Honganji, a four-legged gate with curved gables front and back
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/102/00005514
- National Cultural Properties Database: Ninnaji imperial messenger gate, its surfaces filled with flowing openwork carving
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00009043
- National Cultural Properties Database: Inoue Residence gate, a four-legged gate with its main posts set forward of the ridge
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00003173
Last verified: 2026.09.11