What the Abashiri Prison Museum Back Gate is
The Abashiri Prison Museum Back Gate (博物館網走監獄裏門, Hakubutsukan Abashiri Kangoku Uramon) is a brick gateway in Yobito, Abashiri City, Hokkaido, raised in 1919 as the starting point of Abashiri Prison's red-brick perimeter wall and listed as a national Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 13 August 2012. It consists of a pair of piers and a wall of English bond standing 4.6 metres high, with a total length of 12.7 metres.
A segmental arch 3.2 metres wide opens between the piers. Beside it to the east sits a smaller arched postern, wide enough for one person. The coping stones and the fittings that carried the doors are cut from tuff quarried inside the prison grounds, and the bricks were laid by the inmates themselves.
Staff and prisoners knew this gate as the side gate. Men leaving for the farm and the pig sheds outside the wall passed through it every working day, which set it apart from the formal main gate.
The wall that began here
Work on the red-brick wall around Abashiri Prison started at the stretch that is now the Abashiri Prison Museum Back Gate. Inmates fired the bricks and laid them course by course for five years until the full 1,080 metres of wall was finished in 1924. The gate then stayed in service until September 1993, roughly seventy years of daily use.
Sources give different dates for the gate itself. The Agency for Cultural Affairs national database records 1919; the museum's own signage gives 1924, the year the whole wall was completed. One figure marks the start of construction and the other its end. This article follows the Agency's database as the primary record.
The gate was dismantled and rebuilt on the museum grounds in 1995.
Why it is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property
The Abashiri Prison Museum Back Gate was registered under the criterion of being a model of design, with registration number 01-0130. Brickwork from Hokkaido's prison system rarely survives as a complete structure.
What carries the case is where the material came from. The bricks were fired inside the compound and the tuff was cut from the same ground. Nothing about the gate depended on an outside contractor, and the result has survived a relocation intact.
The scale of the surviving English bond wall matters too. Few Taisho-era penal sites in Japan retain a perimeter structure of this height and length.
What to look for
The curve of the segmental arch is the first thing most visitors notice. Bricks set on a radius carry the 3.2-metre span, and standing directly beneath it you can read how each one was angled a fraction differently from its neighbour.
Move closer to the wall face and the bond becomes legible: one course of stretchers, then one of headers, alternating all the way up. Some bricks are darker than others, a record of uneven firing in the prison kilns.
Do not walk past the postern on the east side. It repeats the shape of the main arch in miniature and took the everyday traffic. Above the piers, the pale grey tuff coping sits against the red brick in a hard, clean line.
Visiting
The Abashiri Prison Museum Back Gate stands outdoors within the grounds of the Abashiri Prison Museum, an open-air museum, and is included in general admission. There is no shelter at the gate, so rain and snow reach you.
Opening hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with last admission at 4:00 p.m. The museum closes on 31 December and 1 January. Admission costs 1,500 yen for adults, 1,000 yen for high school students and 750 yen for elementary and junior high school students; groups of 20 or more receive a 20 percent discount.
Photography is allowed apart from certain exhibits and marked areas, though filming for upload to video-sharing sites and live streaming are both prohibited. The site covers about 3.5 times the area of the Tokyo Dome, and the Abashiri Prison Museum Back Gate sits partway along the visitor route, so it helps to locate it on the site map before setting off.
The museum lies about 4 kilometres from JR Abashiri Station: roughly 10 minutes by bus, 7 minutes by car or taxi, or a 40-minute walk. From Memanbetsu Airport the drive takes about 20 minutes. Parking is free, with space for 400 cars.
Q&A
- When was the Abashiri Prison Museum Back Gate built?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs database records 1919. Construction of the red-brick wall began at the gate in that year, and the wall as a whole was completed five years later, in 1924.
- Why was the Abashiri Prison Museum Back Gate called the side gate?
- Because prisoners used it to reach the farm and pig sheds beyond the wall. The main gate handled visitors and official business, while this one carried the daily working traffic.
- Where did the bricks and stone of the Abashiri Prison Museum Back Gate come from?
- Inmates fired the bricks inside Abashiri Prison. The tuff used for the coping stones and door fittings was quarried within the prison grounds as well.
- Can the Abashiri Prison Museum Back Gate be visited, and what does it cost?
- Yes, with general admission to the Abashiri Prison Museum. The museum opens from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., last admission 4:00 p.m., and closes on 31 December and 1 January. Tickets are 1,500 yen for adults, 1,000 yen for high school students and 750 yen for elementary and junior high school students.
- Is photography permitted at the Abashiri Prison Museum Back Gate?
- Yes. Some indoor exhibits and marked areas are off limits to cameras, but the gate stands outdoors and is not restricted. Filming intended for video-sharing sites and live streaming are not allowed anywhere on site.
Basic Information
| Name | Abashiri Prison Museum Back Gate |
|---|---|
| Location | 1-1 Yobito, Abashiri City, Hokkaido |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered in 2012 (Heisei 24) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Length 12.7 metres, height 4.6 metres |
| Owner | Abashiri Prison Preservation Foundation |
| Public Access | Open to the public (9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., last admission 4:00 p.m.) |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Abashiri Prison Museum Back Gate
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00009255
- Abashiri Prison Museum: Back Gate of Abashiri Prison
- https://www.kangoku.jp/exhibits/prison-back-gate
- Abashiri Prison Museum: Visitor Information
- https://www.kangoku.jp/info/visit
Last verified: 2026.09.13