Hatakoshi Family Residence Middle Gate

What the Hatakoshi Family Residence Middle Gate Is

The Hatakoshi Family Residence Middle Gate (波多腰家住宅中門, Hatakoshi-ke Jūtaku Chūmon) is a Taisho-era (1912 to 1926) timber munamon, a single-ridged roofed gate, in the Hata district of Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 28 April 2000 under the number 20-0045.

It opens in a fence that runs forward from the front of the main house, starting at the point where the shikidai formal entrance meets the best reception rooms. That fence divides the forecourt from the garden in front of the reception rooms. The gate has a gabled roof of pantiles and solid double doors of board. It is 2 metres wide, with board fencing attached.

Tile-capped wing walls (sodobei) extend on both sides and, with the gate, form the edge of the garden.

Forecourt and Reception Garden

The Hatakoshi Family Residence Middle Gate was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it, with its tiled wing walls, as a key element in the look of the garden.

Where the fence starts matters. The shikidai was the formal entrance where guests were received, and beyond it lay the most formal rooms of the house. The fence of the middle gate leaves the house exactly at that line, so the space before the entrance becomes a forecourt for arrivals and the space before the reception rooms becomes a garden to be viewed from inside.

Board doors suit that garden. Closed, they block the view, keeping the reception garden quiet and apart from the traffic of the forecourt.

What to Look For

Compare it with the gate between the forecourt and the storehouses. That one is also a Taisho-era munamon, also 2 metres wide, but it has latticed doors. See-through lattice on one, solid boards on the other: the doors tell you what kind of space lies beyond each.

Consider its relation to the main house as well. Because its fence runs out from the front of the house, the frontage is split by it into an entrance side and a reception-room side, so the division of the garden follows the plan of the house.

Visiting the Hatakoshi Family Residence Middle Gate

The middle gate stands inside the compound, in front of the main house, and belongs to a private home. Neither it nor the reception garden is open, and the grounds cannot be entered.

Directions and viewing conditions for the whole compound are on the Hatakoshi Family Residence page.