Matsuo Sake Brewery Front Gate and Wall

A Gate and Walls on the Old Highway

The Matsuo Sake Brewery Front Gate and Wall (松尾酒造表門及び塀, Matsuo Shuzō Omotemon oyobi Hei) is an early Taisho-period gateway with its flanking walls at Matsuo Sake Brewery in Nishihonmachi, Tosayamada-cho, Kami City, Kochi Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on July 1, 2003. The gate is 3.6 meters wide, and the earthen wall that continues from it runs for 10 meters.

It stands on the old highway, north of the formal entrance of the main house, and forms the street front of the brewery. The Agency for Cultural Affairs classes it as a structure rather than a building and registers the main gate, side gate, wing wall and earthen walls together as a single item.

A Gently Swelling Gabled Roof

The main gate is a Yakuimon about 2 Ken wide. Its gabled roof, laid with pantiles, has a gentle mukuri, a slight upward swell in the roof plane that is the reverse of the concave sweep common on temple roofs.

Facing the gate, a small side gate stands to the right and a brick Sodobei wing wall to the left. From there earthen walls extend east and west along the old highway, their surfaces finished in imitation stone so that walls of earth read as masonry.

Tiled timber gate, red brick and faux stone: three materials share one frontage, showing how much care a Taisho-era brewer put into the face it turned to the highway.

Why It Was Registered

The Matsuo Sake Brewery Front Gate and Wall was registered as number 39-0079 for contributing to the historic landscape of the nation.

The Agency treats the gate and walls, together with the north face of the main house, as the principal elements of the streetscape. The gate lies north of the house's shikidai entrance, so stepping through it brings you face to face with the doorway. The view from the highway has depth: gate and walls in front, the double eaves of the 1912 house behind.

Seeing the Front Gate and Wall

The Matsuo Sake Brewery Front Gate and Wall faces the old highway, and its exterior can be seen from the public street at any time. The curve of the roof is easier to read from an angle than straight on; follow the line of the eaves. Step a little closer to the earthen walls to see how the stone-like finish was achieved.

The gate is the entrance to the grounds, and you may pass through it only as part of the brewery's weekday tours, booked in advance. Take photographs from the public road without blocking traffic.