Ryotei Nicho Front Gate

The Front Gate of Ryotei Nicho

The Ryotei Nicho Front Gate (料亭二蝶表門) is the front gate and street wall of a traditional ryotei restaurant of 1950 in Hyakken-machi, Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on March 2, 2006 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a timber gate roofed in tile and copper, 2.7 metres wide, with 27 metres of wall attached; registration number 37-0290.

A Yakuimon Gate and a Wall on Aji Stone

The Ryotei Nicho Front Gate opens toward the west end of the site's north side, with an outer wall running east and west from it (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The gate is a Yakuimon about 1.5 bays wide, with a gabled roof of interlocking pan tiles, ridge running east to west, and copper only along the eaves (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The wall stands on a base of Aji stone, the granite quarried in Takamatsu. It is a roofed wall with the timber frame left exposed in the Shinkabe manner, a tall dado of vertical boards and small windows cut in the plaster panel above (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Why It Was Registered

The Ryotei Nicho Front Gate was registered as a building that contributes to the historic landscape of the country (Agency for Cultural Affairs), which praises the neat design of the wall and the order it brings to the street.

Running for 27 metres along the road, the gate and wall draw the outline of the ryotei within the city blocks.

What to Look For

The Ryotei Nicho Front Gate can be seen from the street. On the gate roof, look for the copper edging along the tiled eaves (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The wall rises in layers: the Aji stone base, the tall board dado, then the plaster panel with its windows. Step back across the road to take in the run of wall either side of the gate.

Visiting

The Ryotei Nicho Front Gate and its wall face the street to the north and can be seen from outside; only guests with a reservation pass through the gate. Opening days, reservations and directions are covered on the Ryotei Nicho group page.