Gion Kobu Kaburenjo Main Gate

What Is the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo Main Gate?

The Gion Kobu Kaburenjo Main Gate (祇園甲部歌舞練場正門, Gion Kōbu Kaburenjō Seimon) is a reinforced-concrete gate building of 1936 facing Hanamikoji Street in Gionmachi Minamigawa, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2001.

It is a single storey under a hipped (Yosemune-zukuri) roof clad in copper tiles, with a building area of 174 m², and it stands on the west edge of the site. Of the five registered buildings at Gion Kobu Kaburenjo, the Main Gate is the only one from the Showa era and the only one in concrete.

Why the Main Gate Was Registered

The Agency for Cultural Affairs regards the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo Main Gate as a key element of the approach that leads off Hanamikoji toward the theater. It is registration No. 26-0086, entered for its contribution to the country's historic landscape. The Agency's description opens with the theater's beginnings in 1873, when it was built as the venue for the dances devised by Sugiura Jiroemon, and presents the gate as the threshold to that history.

The frame is reinforced concrete, yet what sits on top is a Japanese hipped roof. The gate uses a modern material of its day while matching the look of the 1913 timber buildings behind it. The year it went up, 1936, is also the year the former Yasaka Kaikan was completed on the north side of the site.

One small inconsistency: the structure field of the Agency's database lists the roof simply as tiled, while its descriptive text specifies copper tiles. This article follows the descriptive text.

What to Look For: Where the Street View Changes

Walk south along Hanamikoji from Shijo Street and the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo Main Gate appears on your left, on the east side. In a street of teahouses and restaurants, it is the building that announces where the theater grounds begin.

Step through and the forecourt opens up, with the karahafu gable of the Entrance straight ahead. In a single step, a row of townhouse eaves gives way to the front of a theater. To read the shape of the hipped copper-tile roof, look up at it from the opposite side of the street, just before the gate.

Visiting the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo Main Gate

Because the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo Main Gate faces Hanamikoji, its exterior can be seen from the street at any time. Passing through to the forecourt is mainly possible while the Gion Kagai Art Museum is open and on performance days; the owners do not say if the gate is open at other times.

Cars use Hanamikoji too, and the street is especially busy during the Miyako Odori in spring, when the organizers advise allowing extra time. The gate is a single-storey concrete structure with nothing inside to tour.

Directions from the station and museum hours and admission are on the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo page.