Gotokuan Gate

What Is the Gotokuan Gate?

The Gotokuan Gate (五徳庵門, Gotoku-an Mon) is a wooden Udekimon gate of the late Edo period (1830 to 1867) in Daishoji Nishikicho, Kaga City, Ishikawa Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on February 9, 2005. It is the oldest of the four structures at Gotokuan and the only one that dates back to the days of the Daishoji Domain.

The gate stands at the southern edge of the plot, west of the warehouse, set back a little from the road. It is 4.1 meters wide.

Two Bays, One Opening

The Gotokuan Gate is an udekimon two bays wide. In this type of gate, Udeki brackets projecting forward and backward from the posts carry the roof, and it was widely used for the gates of samurai houses.

Of the two bays, the west one is closed with a Shitami-itabari clapboard wall. The east one is the way in, fitted with a wooden door that slides back into a pocket beside the opening. The builders did not open the full width; they narrowed the entry to a single bay.

The gable roof, in the Kirizuma-zukuri form, is covered in sheet metal.

Posts and a Crossbeam from the Domain Era

The posts of the Gotokuan Gate and the Kabuki crossbeam that ties them at the top are old timbers. The Agency for Cultural Affairs says the gate shows the form used by middle-ranking samurai households under the old domain, and Kaga City likewise believes it to be an Edo-period samurai gate.

The main house, annex and warehouse all date from 1900 or later. Only the gate reaches back before the Meiji era, and it is the one structure at Gotokuan that shows directly that this was the neighborhood of the domain's middle-ranking samurai.

Why the Gotokuan Gate Was Registered

The Gotokuan Gate was registered, as number 17-0127, under the criterion for structures that contribute to the historic landscape. The Agency values it as a gate that keeps alive the look of the samurai district of the Daishoji Domain.

A gate on the street is the most visible part of any house. Together with the warehouse beside it, the Gotokuan Gate shapes the streetscape and gives passers-by a glimpse of what the samurai quarter of this castle town looked like.

Seeing the Gotokuan Gate

Because it faces the road, the Gotokuan Gate is the easiest of the four structures to see. There is no public access beyond it; please do not pass through or open the door.

Standing in front of the gate, you can clearly see the difference between its two halves, the clapboard wall on the west and the sliding board door on the east. Look up to see the brackets carrying the roof. Please photograph only from the public road. Directions to the compound are on the Gotokuan page.