Former Ueda Family Residence Front Gate

About the Former Ueda Family Residence Front Gate

The Former Ueda Family Residence Front Gate (旧植田家住宅表門, Kyū-Uedake Jūtaku Omotemon) in Uematsu-cho, Yao City, Osaka Prefecture is a mid-Meiji era gate on the street front of the former kaisho, or estate office, of the Yasunaka Shinden reclaimed fields, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on March 27, 2006 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a timber gate with a tiled roof and a frontage of 3.6 metres; registration number 27-0365.

A Black-Plastered Gate

The Former Ueda Family Residence Front Gate opens onto the road on the northwest side of the site, between storehouse No. 1 and the lodge (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It has a Kirizuma-zukuri gabled roof of Sangawara-buki pantiles. Of its width of two bays, the central bay forms the gateway, hung with a pair of plank doors, and a Kugurido wicket door is set to the left as you face it.

The walls are finished in black Shikkui plaster above a skirt of sasarako shitami boarding (Agency for Cultural Affairs). In this form of Shitami-itabari clapboarding, the overlapping horizontal boards are held by vertical battens notched to fit each step, a more laborious finish than plain boarding.

Why It Was Registered

The Former Ueda Family Residence Front Gate was registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency notes that its black plaster and boarded skirt give the street front a firm accent.

Storehouse No. 1 and the lodge are built up against it on either side, so the gate and its neighbours together form the street face of the kaisho compound (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

A Gate That Changed Sides

A Yao City Board of Education paper notes that on the Ueda family's geomantic house plan of 1822, the positions of the present main gate and rear gate are reversed (Kansai University). The Former Ueda Family Residence Front Gate, which the Agency dates to the mid-Meiji era, therefore stands where the plan showed the back entrance: the front and back of the compound have swapped since then.

What to Look For

From across the road, the Former Ueda Family Residence Front Gate shows off the contrast between the white plaster of storehouse No. 1 and its own black plaster (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Up close, follow how the notched battens of the skirt match each overlapping board.

Note too the wicket to the left of the plank doors, a small door for passing through while the main doors stay shut.

Visiting

The Former Ueda Family Residence Front Gate is the museum entrance, and visitors pass through it to enter (museum leaflet). The outside can be seen from the road at any time, but entry to the grounds is during opening hours. Opening hours and admission are given on the Former Ueda Family Residence page.