Higashitada Mushoan Nagayamon Gate

About the Higashitada Mushoan Nagayamon Gate

The Higashitada Mushoan Nagayamon Gate (東多田夢勝庵長屋門, Higashitada Mushōan Nagayamon) is an L-shaped gatehouse built in 1863 at the front of a former village headman's estate in Higashitada 2-chome, Kawanishi City, Hyogo Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2019.

It occupies the south-east corner of the plot. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records a single-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 122 square metres. Of the six registered parts of Higashitada Mushoan, this is the only one dated to a single year. It was altered in 1935 and again around 1980.

Forty Metres Around a Corner

A Nagayamon is a gate built into a long range of rooms. The Higashitada Mushoan Nagayamon Gate bends around the corner of the plot in an L, and measured along that bend it runs to 40 metres, a great length for a single gate building.

The roof is laid with pantiles, but its two ends are finished differently: hip-and-gable at the west, plain gabled at the north. Stand near the corner and look each way to compare them.

The walls are built with the posts left exposed, finished in white Shikkui plaster above vertical boarding at the base. Carried along 40 metres, that plaster and boarding make building and boundary read as one continuous front.

Two Gateways, East and South

The Higashitada Mushoan Nagayamon Gate has two gateways, one near the middle of the east face and one near the middle of the south face. Each has a pair of hinged board doors with a Kugurido, a small wicket door, beside them. The wicket probably served for everyday comings and goings, with the big doors opened for guests and goods.

The L-shaped plan is what lets one gatehouse serve two sides at once. Inside, the garden wall starts from the west end of the gatehouse's rear face and runs north to divide the forecourt in front of the Main House.

An Imposing Front

The Higashitada Mushoan Nagayamon Gate was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The agency describes it as forming the imposing front of an old family's estate.

The year 1863 falls some decades after the late Edo date given for the Main House. Building a front gate that wraps the corner of the plot probably brought the headman's estate close to the form it has today.

Seeing the Nagayamon Gate

The Higashitada Mushoan Nagayamon Gate belongs to a private company, and no public opening has been announced (checked October 2026). Visitors cannot pass through the gates into the grounds.

Standing at the front of the estate with gateways to the east and south, the Higashitada Mushoan Nagayamon Gate is probably the easiest of the six to see from outside, although this has not been checked on site. Please photograph from the public road only and do not linger at the gates. Directions are on the Higashitada Mushoan page.