Morimatsu Family Residence East Gate

About the Morimatsu Family Residence East Gate

The Morimatsu Family Residence East Gate (森松家住宅東門, Morimatsu-ke Jūtaku Higashimon) is a gate of 1922 opening on the east side of a former headman's estate in Mukonoso Higashi, Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2009.

The Morimatsu Family Residence East Gate stands between the rice storehouse and the East Barn. It is a one-storey timber structure 4.4 by 4.0 metres, 18 m² in area, with an irimoya hip-and-gable roof of pantiles and short side walls on either side.

A Refined Gate of the Taishō Era

The Morimatsu Family Residence East Gate is one of the few buildings on the estate dated to a specific year. The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives 1922; Amagasaki City's list says around 1922.

While the late-Edo Nagayamon Gate forms the formal front on the west, the East Gate was fitted out as the eastern entrance in the Taishō era. It is modest in size, but the Agency singles out the quality of its detailing.

The Morimatsu Family Residence East Gate was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property for its contribution to the historic landscape. Together with the East Barn of the same period, it shapes the street front on the east side of the estate.

Doors, Wickets, Slats and a Frog-Leg Strut

The front of the Morimatsu Family Residence East Gate has large board doors in the centre, with a Kugurido wicket door hung on each side so people could come and go without opening the main doors.

Overhead is a coffered gōtenjō ceiling, and above the doors runs an Osa-ranma, a transom of fine slats. Between the beams sits a Kaerumata, the "frog-leg" strut familiar from temple and shrine gates. With the irimoya roof, this is careful work for the side gate of a house.

Seeing the Morimatsu Family Residence East Gate

The Morimatsu Family Residence East Gate belongs to a private home and you cannot pass through it. It faces the road on the east side of the estate, so its front can be seen from there.

The ceiling and the frog-leg strut are tucked under the roof and may be hard to make out from the street. Please do not linger at the gate, and photograph only from the public road. Access details sit on the Morimatsu Family Residence page.