A Gatehouse Called a Guardhouse
The Yamayoshi Yamamoto Family Residence Guardhouse (山吉山本家住宅番屋, Yamayoshi Yamamoto-ke Jūtaku Banya) is a Nagayamon gatehouse built in 1908 in Umaki, Shōdoshima-chō, Kagawa Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on February 9, 2005, under number 37-0253. It stands south of the main house and forms the front of the compound.
Banya means a watchman's lodge, but the Agency for Cultural Affairs identifies the building as a nagayamon: a gate built into a long, low range of rooms that doubles as part of the boundary wall. Such rooms housed a gatekeeper, servants or stores. The Yamayoshi Yamamoto Family Residence Guardhouse is a narrow single-storey building roughly 9 metres long on an east-west axis, with a hip-and-gable (irimoya) roof in hongawara tiles and a building area of 57 square metres.
A small garden gate is included in the registration as well, evidence of a second, inner opening that led from the working side of the compound into the garden.
Why It Was Registered
The gatehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape, and the official description calls it indispensable to the composition of the estate.
A glance at the plan explains why. The neribei wall leaves the guardhouse's west gable, runs west and then turns north at the southwest corner. Gatehouse and wall together close off the south side of the property. Take the gate away and the wall has a gap; the main house would face the street unscreened. The building is both the way in and part of the outline of the estate.
Note where the opening is. Many nagayamon put the gate in the middle of the range. Here it sits at the east end, a choice that most likely follows from how visitors were meant to approach the main house's porch and work floor once inside.
What to Look For: Black Plaster and a Drip Course
The walls are finished in black Shikkui lime plaster, which gives the gate a sober weight under the bright Inland Sea light. The storehouse within the same compound is finished in white, so the darker coat on the public face looks deliberate.
Eaves are extended over both the north and south sides. The outer one shelters the wall that faces the road; the inner one covers the ground where people and goods moved inside the compound.
The east gable rewards a closer look. Its lower half is vertical boarding, its upper half black plaster, and at the junction a single course of projecting tiles, called mizukiri-gawara, throws rainwater clear so it cannot run down behind the boards. Rain is not heavy on the Inland Sea, but the builders still protected the weakest seam in the wall.
Visiting
The Yamayoshi Yamamoto Family Residence Guardhouse is the gate of a private property. We found no interior opening or visitor arrangement, and you cannot pass through it onto the grounds.
On the other hand, because it sits on the southern edge of the plot, it is the easiest of the five structures to see from outside. The tiled irimoya roof and black walls can be studied from the road. Take photographs from the public roadway and avoid aiming through the gateway into the compound.
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Q&A
- Can you visit the Yamayoshi Yamamoto Family Residence Guardhouse?
- There is no interior opening that we could find, and the grounds are private. The gatehouse stands on the edge of the property, though, so the exterior can be seen from the public road.
- What kind of building is the Yamayoshi Yamamoto Family Residence Guardhouse?
- Despite its name, it is a nagayamon, a gate combined with a row of rooms. It is a single-storey timber building about 9 metres long with a tiled irimoya roof and black plaster walls.
- When was the Yamayoshi Yamamoto Family Residence Guardhouse built?
- In 1908. It was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on February 9, 2005, number 37-0253.
- Where is the gate opening on the Yamayoshi Yamamoto Family Residence Guardhouse?
- At the east end of the building rather than in the centre.
- What is the row of tiles across the east wall of the Yamayoshi Yamamoto Family Residence Guardhouse?
- A drip course of mizukiri-gawara tiles. Set where the boarding meets the plaster, it sheds rainwater away from the joint.
Basic Information
| Name | Yamayoshi Yamamoto Family Residence Guardhouse (山吉山本家住宅番屋) |
|---|---|
| Location | Ko 710, Imasaka, Umaki, Shōdoshima-chō, Shōzu District, Kagawa Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered 2005/2/9 (Heisei 17) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | 9 metres long; building area 57 square metres |
| Owner | Not listed in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database |
| Public Access | No public opening announced; exterior from outside the grounds |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Yamayoshi Yamamoto Family Residence Guardhouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004661
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Yamayoshi Yamamoto Family Residence Neribei Wall
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004665
- Shōdoshima Town: Modern Industrial Heritage of Hishio no Sato (Japanese)
- https://www.town.shodoshima.lg.jp/gyousei/kakuka/shogaigakushuka/2/1/3151.html
Last verified: 2026.09.26
