Sato Family Residence Roji Gate and Garden Wall

A Gate Between Two Gardens

The Sato Family Residence Roji Gate and Garden Wall (佐藤家住宅露地門及び庭塀, Satō-ke Jūtaku Roji-mon oyobi Niwa-bei) is an early Meiji-era gate and wall dividing the gardens in front of the main house on the estate of a former village headman's family in Chohoji (Chōhōji), Nagaokakyo, Kyoto Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2008.

Step through the Nagayamon Gate and you are in the forecourt in front of the main house's earth-floored entrance hall. To the west, in front of the formal rooms, lies a separate garden. The roji gate and its short wall stand on the line between the two. The gate is 1.2 metres wide and the wall runs for 9.9 metres; the pair are registered as a single property.

The name comes from Roji, the path garden that leads to a tea room, and a roji gate is the light, decorative gate set along such a path. Here it separates the practical yard by the entrance hall from the garden meant to be viewed from the formal rooms, and it is best understood as a partner to those rooms.

Bracket-Arm Gate, Patterned Doors

The gate is a one-bay udegimon, a type in which arms projecting from the tops of the posts carry the roof. Its eaves use a single layer of widely spaced rafters, and the gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof is laid with pantiles.

The doors are the thing to notice. Their battens are set in closely spaced pairs, a pattern called fukiyose, and crossed diagonally in a tasuki pattern. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the effect as elegant. The Nagayamon Gate out front, with its heavy doors and step-over wicket, is built for traffic; this gate is built to be looked at.

The garden wall has a pantiled coping. On the forecourt side it is finished in reddish clay plaster over a base of clapboards, so anyone standing by the entrance hall would have seen a red wall with a boarded skirt and the airy little gate set into it.

Why It Was Registered

The Sato Family Residence Roji Gate and Garden Wall was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. It dates from the same early Meiji years as the main house and was probably laid out along with it. Small as it is, it frames the formal rooms from the garden side and completes the approach to the house.

Visiting

The gate and wall stand inside the Nagayamon Gate, directly in front of the main house, and cannot be seen from the street. The Sato Family Residence is a private home that is not open to the public, so the grounds cannot be entered. Please do not look through the front gate.