Yoshida Sanso (Former Higashifushimi Family Residence) Front Gate

A Karamon Gate on a Residential Lane

The Yoshida Sanso (Former Higashifushimi Family Residence) Front Gate is a hira-karamon gateway of around 1932 on the east edge of the Yoshida Sanso estate in Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 13, 2012. It was the main entrance to the Higashifushimi family's Kyoto villa, and it is still the first thing guests pass through on arrival.

The gate has a single bay with a single doorway, a copper-sheet roof, and an opening 3.9 meters wide hung with plank doors. Earthen walls run off to either side as Sodobei, finished in white Shikkui above a base of Araidashi mortar with the aggregate exposed.

A hira-karamon shows the curved karahafu gable on its sides rather than its front. Face it head-on and the eave line runs almost straight; step around to the side and the bowed gable appears. A mukai-karamon, the more familiar temple type, does the opposite and turns the curve toward the approach.

Beams Instead of Bracket Sets

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Yoshida Sanso Front Gate stacks a lower and an upper beam on top of its round posts, adds another upper beam at the center of the span, and carries the ridge beam on a Kaerumata frog-leg strut and simple boat-shaped bracket blocks. Where a temple karamon would pile up tiers of bracketing, this gate lets overlapping beams do the work and saves the carved kaerumata for one key spot.

It was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape, with the Agency singling out the graceful, dignified front it presents to the street. Putting a karamon on a private house was itself a statement of rank, and a karahafu gate opening onto an ordinary residential lane still sets this corner apart from the houses around it.

A Gate Attributed to Nishioka Tsunekazu

Yoshida Sanso credits the gate to Nishioka Tsunekazu, the master temple carpenter, and describes it as his only work in the city of Kyoto, built in 1932. Nishioka became famous for the Showa-era restoration of Horyuji and the rebuilding of Yakushiji, and was the first temple carpenter named a Person of Cultural Merit.

The Agency's database, however, names no designer or builder for the Front Gate, and the attribution could not be confirmed in official records. By the ryokan's own biography, Nishioka joined the Horyuji restoration in 1934, so the gate would date from two years before that, early in his career.

What to Look For

Start across the lane and take in the whole front, gate and flanking walls reading as one composition. Then move a few steps to the north or south to see the karahafu curve on the gable end. The contrast between the level front eave and the bowed side gable is the whole point of a hira-karamon.

Look up as you walk through. The stacked beams, the central upper beam and the kaerumata carrying the ridge are all close overhead and easy to read from underneath. At the foot of the side walls, check the line where smooth white plaster meets the pebbly araidashi base.

Visiting the Front Gate

Because the Yoshida Sanso Front Gate stands on the east boundary facing the street, anyone can see its exterior from the lane without a booking. The Former Gatekeeper's Lodge stands just to the south, so the two can be viewed together. To see the inner side and the roof framing from underneath, you need a reservation for a stay, a kaiseki meal or Cafe Shinkokan.

The lane is narrow and residential, so choose a spot that keeps you out of the way of traffic if you stop to photograph the full front. Opening hours for the gate itself are not published.