Nishie Family Residence Gate

About the Nishie Family Residence Gate

The Nishie Family Residence Gate (西江家住宅門, Nishie-ke Jūtaku Mon) is an early Meiji Yaguramon, a gate topped by a turret room, at the eastern edge of the Nishie family estate in Nariwa-cho Sakamoto, Takahashi City, Okayama Prefecture; it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2003. It is the main entrance to the house.

The gate is a timber structure with a footprint of about 20 square meters. The roof is hip-and-gable with pantiles, a small wicket door sits beside the main leaves, and eaves project on both the outer and inner faces.

The gate reception rooms continue to the north and the former stable to the south, so the Nishie Family Residence Gate stands in the middle of a single line of buildings that forms the estate's east front.

Why the Gate Was Registered

It was registered as contributing to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that this weighty form is rarely found on a house, and that details such as the shachi ornaments at each end of the ridge give the imposing estate a showy front.

The yaguramon is a castle form, a gatehouse with a room above for watching and defence. A village headman's house had no need of one. The Nishie family had served as district headmen whose home doubled as an office of the shogunate's intendant, and the Nishie Family Residence Gate, built in the early Meiji period, carries that standing into the shape of the entrance.

What to Look For

The upper room has a lattice window at the centre of each face, but only the outer face gets a projecting window of fine latticework. Look up at it before you pass through, then turn around inside and compare the plainer window on the back. The gate was dressed for the people outside.

Shachi, the fish-tailed guardians familiar from castle keeps, sit at both ends of the ridge. Seeing them over the gate of a private house is the point.

Notice the wicket door too. The great leaves opened for guests and officials; everyday comings and goings needed only the small door beside them.

Visiting the Gate

Every visitor passes through the Nishie Family Residence Gate on the way in. There is no indication that the turret room is open.

The estate is still the Nishie family's home and can be visited by reservation only. Phone photography is allowed, but exhibits may not be photographed and commercial shoots are not permitted; staff point out where the buildings can be photographed after you enter.

Directions and booking details are on the Nishie Family Residence page.