Harinakano Nakano Acupuncture Rear Gate

The gate on the garden side

Harinakano Nakano Acupuncture Rear Gate is the northern gate of the Nakano family's acupuncture compound in Higashisumiyoshi Ward, Osaka, built around 1938 and entered on the national register as Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 5 December 2019.

It opens onto the northern street from the eastern corner of the compound's northern edge. Timber, roofed with copper tiles, 2.3 metres wide, with a kugurido wicket door on the western side. The path beyond it leads to the garden.

The form follows the front gate closely: a gabled roof rising out of a tall wall, a single bay with a single opening, a side door alongside. Some three and a half decades separate the two, and the later gate was clearly built with the earlier one in mind.

The differences are in the materials and the finish. The roof is laid not in clay tiles but in copper ones. An osa-ranma, a transom of closely spaced slats, fills the panel above the opening. The ceiling on the inner side is a coffered ceiling. Harinakano Nakano Acupuncture Rear Gate takes the older gate's form and raises the specification.

Why it was registered

The listing criterion is contribution to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the gate as a substantial piece of work, a match for the front gate, that draws the north-east corner of the site together.

It is the youngest of the seven, and that is part of the case. A compound laid out in the Meiji period was still being extended in the same manner well into the Showa era. Copper tiles, a slatted transom and a coffered ceiling are expensive choices, and in 1938 the Nakano house was still making them.

Having two gates also describes how the household worked. The front gate on the southern street was the public face; the rear gate led to the garden and the private rooms. Entrances were separated by purpose.

What to look for

Get close enough to read the roof. Copper tiles return light differently from clay, and the surface has weathered to a settled tone. An afternoon with clear light, viewed from the north, shows the texture best.

Above the opening sits the osa-ranma. Its slats are set at even intervals like the reed of a loom, and standing square to the gate gives a glimpse through them. The front gate has nothing of the kind, which makes this the quickest way to tell Harinakano Nakano Acupuncture Rear Gate from its older counterpart.

The ceiling on the inner side is coffered. Only a fraction is visible from outside, and only from directly beneath the opening. Osaka City's report lists this gate among the elements still awaiting attention, so its finishes are in visibly different condition from the restored front gate. A Western-style annexe, not part of the listing, stands to its right.

Seeing it

Harinakano Nakano Acupuncture Rear Gate is not open to visitors. The gate is kept shut and the compound cannot be entered.

Viewing is from the northern street. The gate sits at the north-east corner of the site, so the far end of the northern street, walking east, is the best position. Comparing it with the front gate means walking round from the southern street. There is no admission charge and no opening hours.

Keep photography to the exterior from the road; the path beyond the gate leads to the garden and the family's rooms, so avoid shooting into the depth of the compound. Directions from the station and the viewing conditions for the compound as a whole are set out on the Harinakano Nakano Acupuncture page.