Shimanouchi Yukiko Family Residence Gate

What the Shimanouchi Yukiko Family Residence Gate Is

The Shimanouchi Yukiko Family Residence Gate (島内章子家住宅家門, iemon) is a timber Yakuimon gate of 1935 in Kamioka, Noichi-cho, Konan City, Kochi Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 25 June 2002.

It stands at the southeast corner of the estate, at the top of a flight of steps that climbs from the road on the south and turns at a right angle on the way. Its ridge runs north to south.

The Shimanouchi Yukiko Family Residence Gate has a single opening one Ken wide, a pantiled Kirizuma-zukuri gable roof and a frontage of 2.0 metres. A yakuimon is a gate whose roof rests on the main posts and a second pair of posts set behind them.

Why It Was Registered

The Gate was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs sees it as a key element of the estate's southern elevation. The point is less the gate on its own than the way it combines with the main house's entrance and the hip-and-gable roof of its living wing to form the face the house turns to the road.

The approach adds to that effect. Instead of stepping straight in from the road, you climb, turn, and only then pass through the gate. The dog-leg gives the entrance height and depth.

What to Look For

Because the Shimanouchi Yukiko Family Residence Gate runs north to south, what faces the road is not its opening but its southern gable end, and that gable has a gentle mukuri, a slight upward swell in the roof line that softens the edge of the gable.

Look too at the side of the steps. The east end of the stone wall doubles as their balustrade and carries an unusual spiral design, work of the same year as the gate.

From the road you see the layers stack up: stone wall, the gable of the gate, then the roofs of the main house behind. The landscape value cited in the registration is easiest to grasp from here.

Visiting

The Shimanouchi Yukiko Family Residence Gate is the entrance to a private home and there is no access through it. Neither the Kochi Prefecture nor the Konan City lists give any visiting information (checked 27 September 2026).

Of the seven registered structures it is closest to the road, and it is probably the easiest to see from the public street on the south. The steps up to it are the family's front entrance, so do not climb them. No notice about photography was found; keep to the road and do not block the way in.