Former Ueda Family Residence Middle Gate and Wall

About the Former Ueda Family Residence Middle Gate and Wall

The Former Ueda Family Residence Middle Gate and Wall (旧上田家住宅中門及び塀, Kyū Ueda-ke Jūtaku Chūmon oyobi Hei) is a timber gate and garden wall in Kaidecho, Muko City, Kyoto Prefecture, built around 1942 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 29, 2019. The wall closes off the front garden of the main house on the east, west, and south, and the gate opens near the north end of the east wall.

The Former Ueda Family Residence Middle Gate and Wall is thought to have been built new when the Ueda family moved their Meiji-era main house about 190 meters west to this site. The gate is 1.0 meter wide, the walls run 27 meters in total, and both are roofed with interlocking pantiles.

Why the Gate and Wall Were Registered

The Ueda gate and wall were registered for contributing to the historic landscape of the country. In the words of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, they give the front of the main house a formal, dignified bearing.

On a farm, the yard in front of the house is also a working space for drying crops and handling the harvest. Here that yard was enclosed by a wall and entered through a gate, so that the approach to the main house became a deliberate sequence. When the family rebuilt the compound after the move, they gave the main house a proper entrance. Muko City's description of the residence as a farmhouse finished to a refined standard rests partly on this gate and wall.

One discrepancy should be noted. The national database gives the period as around 1942, but its Western-calendar field reads 1884. Muko City also describes the gate and wall as built after the relocation, so this article treats them as dating from around 1942.

A Washed-Aggregate Base and a Ridge-Beam Gate

The walls of the Former Ueda Family Residence Middle Gate and Wall stand on a continuous strip footing finished in washed mortar, a technique in which the surface of fresh mortar is rinsed to expose the gravel within, leaving a fine pebbled texture at ground level. Above it, the walls are built in the exposed-post Shinkabe manner, with vertical boards on the lower part and a small tiled roof along the top.

The middle gate is a Munamon, a simple gate whose roof rests on a ridge beam carried by two posts. It has a gabled roof of interlocking pantiles and a pair of swinging board doors. At just 1 meter across, it is modest in size, and it opens not on the axis of the main house but at the north end of the east wall.

Paving markers in the grounds of the Former Ueda Family Residence trace the inner corridor wall that once enclosed the imperial residence of Nagaoka Palace. A garden wall from around 1942 and the line of an eighth-century palace wall share the same small compound.

Seeing the Middle Gate and Wall

The Former Ueda Family Residence Middle Gate and Wall can be seen whenever the residence is open, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and entry is free. Standing in the front garden, you can take in the run of wall on three sides and the position of the gate in the east wall. Look down at the base of the wall to see the pebbled washed-mortar finish.

The city's pages do not say whether photography is allowed, so ask at the reception. Opening days and directions are on the Former Ueda Family Residence (Muko) page.