Hara Family Residence Gate

A Single-Bay Gate on the Southern Boundary

Hara Family Residence Gate (原家住宅門, Hara-ke Jūtaku Mon) is a timber gate built around 1902 in Nihongi, Konan Ward, Niigata City, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 1 August 2016. It is a single-bay Yakuimon, 2.7 metres wide by 1.4 metres deep, under a tiled gabled roof.

It stands on the southern edge of the grounds, diagonally in front of the entrance to the main house. For anyone calling on the family, this was the first structure they passed through.

A yakuimon carries its roof on two main posts at the front with a second, shorter pair set behind them. Here the type is reduced to its simplest single-bay form.

Plain Design, Good Wood

There is almost no ornament. The gable ends have no decorative boards; a single short strut rises to carry the finished ridge beam, and that is all.

What the gate does have is timber. The Agency for Cultural Affairs points to the doors, each made from a single board, and to the quality of the wood throughout, and credits these with giving the Hara Family Residence Gate its dignity. Leaving out ornament and letting the material do the work is the same approach the Agency notes in the reception rooms of the main house.

The gate is small, but it completes the face the compound presents to the road, and that is why it was registered alongside the house and storehouses.

What to Look For

Start with the doors. A door made from one board needs a board as wide as the door, which means a log of real girth. For a family in the timber trade, that is a quiet way of showing what they dealt in.

At the gable ends you can see how spare the frame is: a strut and a ridge beam, with nothing added to dress them up.

The angle matters as well. Standing under the Hara Family Residence Gate, you see the entrance of the main house off to one side rather than straight ahead.

Viewing the Gate

This is the front entrance of a private home, and visitors cannot pass through it. Of the ten buildings, the Hara Family Residence Gate is the one most likely to be visible from outside, but we have not been able to confirm how clearly the doors can be seen from the public road.

Residents come and go through it every day. Keep any stop brief, and avoid photographing the grounds beyond or anyone using the gate.