Ninomiya Family Residence Middle Gate and Wall

An Inner Gate and a Board Fence

The Ninomiya Family Residence Middle Gate and Wall (二宮家住宅中門及び塀, Ninomiya-ke Jūtaku Chūmon oyobi Hei) is a late-Meiji timber gate and board fence on the Ninomiya estate in Hasuno, Seirō Town, Niigata Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2006. The gate is 1.7 metres wide and the fence runs for 15 metres; both are roofed in sheet metal.

The pair stands east of the Main House on a line that divides the eastern part of the grounds from north to south. The gate is a simple gabled structure with an opening of 5 shaku 5 sun. The fence is built of boards on a sill laid over stone footings, with posts set every 3 shaku 5 sun and a single small wicket door partway along.

The estate's front entrance is the Great Gate, a row-house gate first built in 1877. The Middle Gate sits inside it and subdivides the grounds further. Two gates in sequence let a large household decide how far each visitor was allowed to come.

Why It Was Registered

The Ninomiya Family Residence Middle Gate and Wall was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that it hints at the layout of reception halls that once stood here.

The family says a fully two-storey banquet hall, used for weddings, occupied the site of today's garden until it was taken down in the post-war years. The hall is gone, but the route guests followed and the point where the grounds were divided survive in the gate and fence. That makes this modest structure a record of a missing building.

The workmanship is plain: stone footings, sill, posts and boards repeated at a steady interval. It was made to keep the estate in order, not to impress.

What to Look For

Count the fence posts. They march at intervals of roughly 1 metre for 15 metres, broken only by the one wicket door.

Compare roofs, too. The gable of the Middle Gate is finished in light sheet metal, unlike the tiled Great Gate and storehouses. Walking in through the main entrance and then arriving at this gate is the clearest way to feel where the outer and inner parts of the estate once met.

Visiting

The Ninomiya Family Residence Middle Gate and Wall stands east of the Main House, on the line dividing the eastern grounds from north to south. Whether you can pass through the gate depends on the route set for the opening.

The post spacing and the wicket door are clearest from close beside the fence. Follow the on-site guidance on photography.