Suzunoya Heritage Preservation Society Main Gate

What Is the Suzunoya Heritage Preservation Society Main Gate?

The Suzunoya Heritage Preservation Society Main Gate (鈴屋遺蹟保存会正門, Suzunoya Iseki Hozonkai Seimon) is a timber four-legged gate built in 1909 on the Matsusaka Castle ruins in Tonomachi, Matsusaka City, Mie Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 31 July 2007.

It was put up as the front entrance to the society's grounds when Motoori Norinaga's house was moved onto the castle site. It stands southeast of the former office, on the northeast frontage of the plot.

Great Buddha Style on a Small Scale

The Main Gate was registered as number 24-0065, for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as a gate with distinctive design and structure.

Matsusaka City notes that both the office porch and this gate use details modeled on Daibutsuyō, the bold carpentry of the early Kamakura period that was developed for very large temple halls. The Motoori Norinaga Memorial Museum goes further and wonders whether the gate was a piece of play by Tsuchiya Junichi, the Nagoya professor who supervised the design.

The opening is only 2.7 meters wide. The fun of the Suzunoya Heritage Preservation Society Main Gate lies in bringing the heavy, outspoken detailing of a great hall down to the scale of a garden entrance.

Beam Ends, a Plank Frog-Leg and Bracketed Arms

The gate is a Shikyakumon, a one-bay, one-doorway gate whose roof is carried on four auxiliary posts as well as the two main ones. The roof is Kirizuma-zukuri, a plain gable, covered in Hongawarabuki round-and-flat tiles. A Kugurido wicket door is set to each side.

The Agency's description points to three details. The beams pass right through the posts, and their projecting ends are carved as Kibana in the daibutsuyo manner. A flat plank Kaerumata, the "frog-leg" strut, sits at the middle of each beam. And the Udeki arms that carry the eaves are supported from below by the posts and by a masu bearing block. Running beams through posts and showing their ends is one of the hallmarks of daibutsuyo carpentry.

Standing in front, compare the carved beam ends on the left and right, then lift your eyes to find the plank strut at mid-beam. The meeting of arm and bearing block is easiest to read from the side of the gate.

Visiting

The Suzunoya Heritage Preservation Society Main Gate stands on the northeast frontage of the society's plot. The garden in front of the former office is normally entered on the Motoori Norinaga Memorial Museum's combined ticket. For a 2022 evening event the Matsusaka tourism association asked visitors to come and go by "the gate on the Oshokaku side" after the museum closed; whether that meant this gate, and whether it is used as an entrance on ordinary days, is worth checking with the museum.

The outer details are best seen from directly in front, looking up. Ask at the museum desk about photography.