Fureaikan Shirafuji (Former Maruta Clinic) Nagayamon Gate

What Is the Fureaikan Shirafuji (Former Maruta Clinic) Nagayamon Gate?

The Fureaikan Shirafuji (Former Maruta Clinic) Nagayamon Gate (ふれあい館しらふじ（旧丸田医院）長屋門) is a two-storey wooden Nagayamon gatehouse in Suzaka City, Nagano Prefecture, built around 1875 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on September 19, 2003.

It stands along the street on the west side of the estate, its gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof of sangawara tiles running north to south. It is about 7 metres long, with a footprint of 26 square metres. That is small for a gatehouse: the passage occupies the south end of the ground floor, and the rest of the ground floor and the whole upper floor were used for storage.

The earthen tsuiji wall runs out on both sides. To the north it meets the three-storey storehouse; to the south it turns in a U shape around the southwest corner of the gate. Gate, wall and corner storehouse make up a single street front.

Why It Was Registered: An Orderly Street Front

It was registered for contributing to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs credits its Shikkui plaster walls and fully plastered eaves with giving the estate a neat, composed facade.

Suzaka City's guide to its historic streets describes it as a thick-walled gatehouse and, together with the three-storey storehouse, singles out its stern ridge-end tiles and heavy botamochi stonework as among the boldest sights in the old town. This was the public face of the house the Urano family, former finance commissioners of the Suzaka domain, built in the early Meiji years.

What to Look For

Look up under the eaves. Each Taruki rafter has been wrapped in plaster, and the whole soffit is sealed in a rippling, wave-like surface. Hiding the woodwork under plaster is a fire-conscious storehouse technique carried over to the gate.

The walls are plastered too, with no posts showing. Only about 7 metres long, the gatehouse still pulls the frontage together with its white walls, wavy eaves and tile roof.

Notice also where the passage is: not in the centre but at the south end, with the remaining space given over to storage, a practical plan.

Visiting the Nagayamon Gate

The Fureaikan Shirafuji Nagayamon Gate faces the street, so its exterior is visible from the road. Stand across the street to take in the gate, the walls on either side and the storehouse at the north end in one view.

The gate is now the entrance to the Shirafuji rental inn, and guests walk through it to reach the compound. Nobody else may go inside. No official rule on photography is published. Directions are on the Fureaikan Shirafuji page.