Kitamura Family Residence Gate

A Row Gate Built as a Storehouse

The Kitamura Family Residence Gate (北村家住宅門) is a storehouse-built row gate of the mid-Meiji era in Wakaho Kawada, Nagano City, Nagano Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on March 2, 2004 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a two-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 83 square metres; registration number 20-0173.

A Storehouse Gate on the Post-Town Street

The Kitamura Family Residence Gate stands on the north side of the plot, facing the old post-town street beside the former post office building (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It is a two-storey building of Dozo-zukuri storehouse construction, with a gabled roof of pan tiles.

The gateway opens toward the west end under a small pent roof. The lower walls are clad in boards, with small windows set high above (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Nagano City points to the contrast of earth-plastered walls and black-painted clapboard skirting as the defining feature of the frontage.

Inside, the building served as a storeroom, and until the Second World War it was used mainly for rice (Agency for Cultural Affairs). A landowner's gate here doubled as his granary.

Why It Was Registered

The Kitamura Family Residence Gate was registered as a model of design (Agency for Cultural Affairs), which calls it a fine example of a storehouse-built nagaya-mon row gate.

Nagano City describes the row gate as two storehouses joined along the street that keep the look of the old post town, and on May 1, 2008, it named the Kitamura Residence, gate and main house together, Landscape Important Building No. 5.

What to Look For

Because the Kitamura Family Residence Gate stands right on the street, its exterior is easy to study. Read the elevation from bottom to top: black clapboard skirting, white earth walls, the small pent roof over the off-centre gateway and the little windows set high up.

Only part of the long range is a passage; the rest was the rice store, which explains why the gateway sits toward one end. Compare the roofline and wall finishes with the former post office building that adjoins it on the west, and the two read as one continuous row gate.

Visiting

The Kitamura Family Residence is a private home, and no official information on access to the grounds or interiors was found. Plan to view it from the street, keeping clear of the doorway and of passing traffic.