Urushibara Family Residence Nagayamon Gate

What the Nagayamon Gate Is

The Urushibara Family Residence Nagayamon Gate (漆原家住宅長屋門, Urushibara-ke Jūtaku Nagayamon) in Mitani-cho, Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture, is a late Edo period (1751 to 1830) row-house gate at the front of a rural samurai estate, listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on February 27, 2023.

A Nagayamon is a gateway built into a long, occupied range of rooms. This one is a 2-storey timber structure with a tiled roof and a building area of 130 square meters. It opens at the exact middle of the estate's south side and was altered in the early Meiji era.

The Face of a Goshi House

The Urushibara nagayamon is register no. 37-0480, listed for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as an imposing gate, fitting for the front of a goshi family's house.

What makes it imposing is, first of all, length. The front runs 26.3 meters. The liquid manure barn and firewood barn continue the line to the east, the earthen wall to the west, and between them the Urushibara Family Residence Nagayamon Gate sets the character of the whole street front.

A Hipped-and-Gabled Roof and Three Rooms

The roof is hipped-and-gabled (Irimoya-zukuri) and laid in heavy Hongawarabuki, with alternating round and flat tiles. Either side of the passage is given over to rooms: two on the east, one on the west.

The room at the east end, next to the firewood barn, is said to have been the carpenter's room. On an estate this size, with so many buildings to keep in repair, it makes sense to find a workshop built into the gate itself.

Along the road, the wall is pierced by a row of latticed windows set high up, above eye level. Inside the gate, a straight stone path runs to the main house.

Seeing the Urushibara Family Residence Nagayamon Gate

Because the Urushibara Family Residence Nagayamon Gate faces the road, its exterior can be seen from outside. From the road on the south side the high latticed windows and the hipped-and-gabled roof are easy to take in, together with the barns and wall that run off to either side.

The estate is a private home. The gate passage and the rooms are not open, and visitors should not step through the gate or linger looking in.