What an udekimon is
An udekimon is a gate in which two main posts carry brackets, called udeki, that project to the front and back from near the top of each post and support the eave beams of a small gabled roof. The brackets are short horizontal members cantilevered from the posts, and they carry the weight of the roof to them. The opening is a single bay, and records often describe the gate as a one-bay udekimon. Being simple and small, the type was widely used as the front gate of a house, as the entrance to a garden and as a minor temple gate.
The record for the wooden garden gate of the former Nagashima family house explains the structure clearly: the main posts carry the ridge beam, stacked brackets support the eave beams, and curved rafters span between them. The ridge sits directly above the posts, and the eaves on either side rest on the brackets.
Related gate types can be told apart by how the roof is carried. A Yakuimon has rear posts behind the main posts, with one roof covering both and the ridge set between them. A Shikyakumon has four subsidiary posts, two in front and two behind, all under the roof. A Kōraimon adds small separate roofs over its rear posts. A gate with no roof, only a crossbeam over two posts, is a kabukimon. The Munamon closely resembles the udekimon, and sources draw the line between them in different ways.
Reading the records and the gate
Bracing posts do not decide the type. The record for the front gate of Sesonji describes it as a one-bay udekimon and also notes bracing posts set in front of and behind the main posts and tied to them with through-ties. Such posts steady the gate, and as long as they do not carry the roof the gate remains an udekimon.
On site, walk to the side of the gate and look at the tops of the posts. If horizontal members project front and back from the main posts and carry the eave beams at their tips, the gate is an udekimon. If the eave beams rest on posts, or if the roof extends over the bracing posts, another type is more likely.
Records add the width of the opening, the roofing and the doors. The gate of the Yamamoto family house is recorded as an udekimon with an opening of four shaku and a roof of round pantiles, and the middle gate of the Tanaka family house as 1.4 metres wide with a gabled tiled roof and strongly curved rafters. Besides tile, roofs of cedar bark or copper occur, and cedar-bark udekimon appear at houses built in the refined sukiya manner.
References
- 世尊寺表門｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00005791
- 旧長島家住宅木戸門｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00014743
- 田中家住宅中門｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00012588
- 山本家住宅門｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00006392
Last verified: 2026.09.26