Yamada Liquor Store (Haseji Teahouse) Garden Gate

The Way Into the Teahouse

The Yamada Liquor Store (Haseji Teahouse) Garden Gate (山田酒店（茶房長谷路）庭門, Yamada Saketen Sabō Haseji Niwamon) is an early Taishō-period timber gate set in the street wall of Yamada Liquor Store on the Hasedera temple approach in Hatsuse, Sakurai City, Nara Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on December 4, 2000. It is 1.5 meters wide, and its registration includes the sleeve walls and the west wall attached to it.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the Yamada Liquor Store garden gate as an anamon-type gate that serves as the teahouse entrance. Anyone coming in from the approach to the garden and the teahouse passes through it. It stands right beside the tea room, halfway along the wall that closes off the south side of the lot.

The Agency's database dates it to the early Taishō period, giving the span as 1912 to 1925. In its note on the wall, the Agency credits the gate, with the teahouse zashiki, the tea room and the wall, to the grandfather of the owner at the time of registration.

Set Back From the Wall, With Angled Sleeve Walls

The Yamada Liquor Store garden gate does not sit flush with the outer wall. It is placed slightly back from the wall line, and on each side a Sodobei sleeve wall bends in a shallow dogleg toward it.

The sleeve walls have a lower band of boards (Koshiita), grey nezumi-shikkui plaster above, and a coping of pantiles. The same pairing of boards below and grey plaster above is used on the long wall along the south of the lot.

Because the gate steps back and the sleeve walls angle in, a small recess opens in the middle of the wall when seen from the approach.

A Copper Canopy Over the Street

The other distinctive feature of the Yamada Liquor Store garden gate is the Hisashi canopy it projects toward the street, roofed in copper sheet (Dōban-buki). The sleeve walls carry tiles, but the gate front alone has a metal canopy.

The Agency singles out this canopy as part of what gives the gate its distinctive form. With a different material over the gate alone, the entrance stands out clearly along the length of the wall. The registration number is 29-0043, and like the other five it was registered as contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

The database records the gate type as a timber hirajūmon with a tiled roof.

Visiting the Garden Gate of Yamada Liquor Store

Because it faces the approach, the Yamada Liquor Store garden gate can be seen from outside even on days the teahouse is closed. Standing slightly to one side rather than straight in front makes it easier to see how the gate steps back and how the sleeve walls bend. Look up to find the copper canopy.

You go through the gate when visiting Haseji Teahouse as a customer. According to the Sakurai City Tourism Association, it opens from 11:00 a.m. and has no fixed closing day. When photographing from the approach, avoid blocking the gateway for customers or the street for other walkers.