Fujino Family Residence Roji Gate and Wall

About the Fujino Family Residence Roji Gate and Wall

The Fujino Family Residence Roji Gate and Wall (藤野家住宅露地門及び塀, Fujino-ke Jūtaku Rojimon oyobi Hei) is a wooden garden gate and wall built in the mid-Meiji period (1883 to 1897) in Fujiidera 2-chome, Fujiidera City, Osaka Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2012.

The Fujino Family Residence Roji Gate and Wall runs out from beside the Shikidai, the formal entrance step on the north face of the main house. The gate is an Udekimon 1.6 m wide with a Kirizuma-zukuri gable roof of Sangawara-buki pantiles, and a pair of board doors slides apart between its posts. The walls on either side run 8 m in total, capped with ichimonji tiles, and are built in Shinkabe style with the posts left showing in the wall face.

If the main gate marks the line between the estate and the street, this one divides the inside of the estate, one garden from another. It stands right beside the shikidai as you approach the main house from the main gate.

What the Fujino Roji Gate and Wall does

The Fujino Family Residence Roji Gate and Wall was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency for Cultural Affairs credits it with separating the front garden from the main garden and creating a well-composed garden space.

On the north side of the main house there is a front garden that visitors cross from the gate to the entrance, and a garden in front of the formal rooms. Osaka Bunkazai Navi describes the zashiki garden north of the house as a Japanese stroll garden and lists the estate's gardens as an entrance garden, a main-house garden, a working yard and a roji in front of a tea room. No public source says exactly which of them the gate opens onto, but the descriptions make clear that a low gate and a short wall are all that separate the visitors' route through the front garden from the main garden viewed from the formal rooms.

A Roji is, strictly, the garden path that leads to a tea room, and the word is also used for gates into the gardens of a house. The name of the Fujino Family Residence Roji Gate and Wall marks it as a gate for the garden rather than for the street.

What to look for at the Fujino Roji Gate and Wall

The roji gate is the same udekimon type as the main gate, but it is dressed differently. It is 1.6 m wide against 2.2 m at the main gate. Where the main gate has a Kugurido wicket door, this one opens by sliding its two board leaves to either side. As an inner gate, it is built to a lighter scale.

Look at the tiles on the wall. Ichimonji tiles have their lower edges cut perfectly straight, so the top of the wall reads as a single horizontal line. They take extra work to make and have long been a favorite for garden settings and buildings in the refined sukiya manner.

According to the agency, the Koshiita wainscot boarding is applied only to the east face of the wall. Finishing one side only suggests that the east side was the one meant to be seen, presumably by guests on their way to the entrance.

Visiting the Fujino Family Residence Roji Gate and Wall

The Fujino Family Residence is a private home and the grounds are not open. The Fujino Family Residence Roji Gate and Wall stands behind the main gate and its wing walls, close to the front of the main house, so it is hard to see from the street.

Please do not go through the main gate. Directions to the estate are on the Fujino Family Residence (Fujiidera) page.