Murao Family Residence Nagayamon Gate

About the Murao Family Residence Nagayamon Gate

The Murao Family Residence Nagayamon Gate (村尾家住宅長屋門, Murao-ke Jūtaku Nagayamon) is a single-story timber gatehouse built around 1897 in Nishiueta-chō, Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2003.

A Nagayamon is a long building with a gateway cut through it and rooms along the rest of its length. This one stands south of the Murao main house with its ridge running east and west, under a heavy Hongawarabuki tiled roof in the Irimoya-zukuri hip-and-gable form. It is about 21 meters long and covers 115 square meters, and the registration also takes in an earthen wall 30 meters long.

Why the Murao Nagayamon Gate was registered

The Murao Nagayamon Gate was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as imposing and solid, and singles it out as a striking element of the scene.

With the stone wall in the front garden, the gate forms the public face of the Murao estate. The main house behind it is almost the same length, about 21 meters, so two long buildings stand one behind the other across the yard.

What to look for in the Murao Nagayamon Gate

Look first at where the passage is. The Murao Family Residence Nagayamon Gate does not open at its center: the gateway is set toward the west end, with two rooms on its east side and a single room on its west.

The walls are finished in white Shikkui plaster, and the lower part is clad in Namako-kabe, flat tiles fixed to the wall with their joints sealed in raised bands of plaster. The diagonal grid of those bands runs the full length of the building.

At the east end a barn and other rooms under a Yosemune-zukuri hipped roof are attached, and they count as part of the gatehouse. A lower roof of a different shape therefore meets the hip-and-gable roof at that end.

Visiting the Murao Family Residence Nagayamon Gate

The Murao Family Residence Nagayamon Gate belongs to a private home, and we found no notice that its rooms are open. Please do not walk through the gateway onto the property, and look from outside instead. No photography policy is published, so be considerate of the residents. Directions to the estate and notes on visiting are on the Murao Family Residence page.