Fukuda Family Residence Garden Gate and Garden Partition Wall

About the Garden Gate and Partition Wall

The Fukuda Family Residence Garden Gate and Garden Partition Wall (福田家住宅庭門及び庭間仕切塀, Fukuda-ke Jūtaku Niwamon oyobi Niwa Majikiribei) in Higashisako, Noichi-cho, Konan City, Kochi Prefecture, is a timber garden gate and reinforced concrete wall of around 1924, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 21, 2002. The tiled gate is 1.4 meters wide and the wall runs 10 meters.

The Fukuda Family Residence Garden Gate and Garden Partition Wall stands between the front of the main entrance and the south garden, marking the way into the garden for anyone walking up to the door.

A Gently Curved Gate Roof

The garden gate is a timber Munamon, a simple ridge-roofed gate, with a gabled pantile roof (Kirizuma-zukuri, Sangawara-buki) given a slight upward swell (mukuri). The curve softens what would otherwise be a straight, hard roofline.

The sources disagree on its size. The Agency for Cultural Affairs description calls it 2 ken wide, while the structure field of the same database gives a width of 1.4 meters. At about 1.8 meters per 1 ken, 2 ken would be about 3.6 meters, so the figures do not match. This article uses the structure field.

A Low Wall That Stages the Approach

The Fukuda Family Residence Garden Gate and Garden Partition Wall was registered as contributing to the historic landscape, under register number 39-0062.

The concrete wall is kept low so the garden can be seen over it. From its outer corner it steps up one level and joins the outer wall on the south edge of the lot. Ornament runs beneath the coping (Kasagi).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs praises how skillfully the gate and wall stage the approach to the entrance. Walking to the door, you glimpse the garden over the low wall while the gate marks the way in; the change in wall height decides what is shown and what is closed off.

Seeing the Garden Gate

The Fukuda Family Residence Garden Gate and Garden Partition Wall stands in front of the main entrance, inside the main gate, where it is hard to see from outside the lot.

No public opening has been announced, and the grounds are not open to visitors. Access details for the whole compound are on the Fukuda Family Residence group page.