Former Aikawa Family Residence Rear Gate and Wall

A bracketed gate on the back lane

The Former Aikawa Family Residence Rear Gate and Wall (旧相川家住宅裏門及び塀, Kyū Aikawa-ke Jūtaku Uramon oyobi Hei) is an udegimon gate with board walls built in the early Showa period, sometime between 1926 and 1945, in Sankocho, Isesaki City, Gunma Prefecture, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 6, 2025. It faces the narrow lane running along the south of the Aikawa property and marks off the west side of the plot.

The Former Aikawa Family Residence Rear Gate and Wall is timber with tiled roofs. The gate has a frontage of 2.1 metres and the walls a total length of 25 metres. It is the youngest of the six registered structures, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs lists it at 6-17 Sankocho, while the other five are registered at 6-11.

The front gate on Nishimachi street gives the house its formal face; the rear gate handles the lane side. With both gates registered, the perimeter of the property survives on its street and lane frontages alike.

Why it was registered

The Agency for Cultural Affairs credits the Former Aikawa Family Residence Rear Gate and Wall with giving order to the lane side of the residence. It was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape of the country.

The rear gate is an udegimon, a simple type in which the roof rests on brackets (udegi) projecting forward and back from two gateposts. Such gates were widely used as side gates and service entrances for town houses and samurai residences. The roof is gabled (Kirizuma-zukuri) in pan tiles, with a single tier of widely spaced rafters (Taruki), an arrangement called hitonoki mabara-daruki.

The double board doors are made of vertical planks set with narrow gaps between them. Set beside the heavy, metal-strapped doors of the front gate, these are light doors for everyday coming and going.

What to look for

The most interesting thing about the Former Aikawa Family Residence Rear Gate and Wall is how the wall meets the gate. The board wall runs east and west but joins the gate at an angle, leaving a small recessed forecourt, called a hiki, in front of the doors. Setting the gate back from the lane gives people somewhere to pause even on a narrow street.

The wall is earthen with Shitami-itabari clapboarding at the base and a pan-tile coping. At 25 metres it runs a good distance along the lane, its exposed clay tones quieter than the white plaster wall on the street front.

Stand under the eaves and look up at the spacing of the rafters. With so few of them, the eaves feel light, the opposite of the heavy tiled roof over the front gate.

Visiting

The Former Aikawa Family Residence Rear Gate and Wall faces the lane south of the property, and its exterior can be seen from there. The small forecourt created by the angled wall is easiest to read if you stand in the lane and look at gate and wall obliquely.

The museum's information does not mention this gate being used as an entrance today, and the owner field in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database is blank. The lane is a residential street, so take care not to block passers-by. Opening hours, admission and directions are covered on the Former Aikawa Family Residence page.