Okuno Family Residence Roji Gate and High Wall

A gate and wall between two gardens

Okuno Family Residence Roji Gate and High Wall (奥野家住宅露地門及び高塀, Okuno-ke Jūtaku Roji-mon oyobi Takabei) is an early-Meiji gate and wall in Nakasakurazuka, Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on July 8, 2008, under number 27-0500. The agency dates it to early Meiji, while its Western-calendar field gives the full Meiji span of 1868 to 1911.

It runs south from the east side of the main house's formal Shikidai entrance, separating the forecourt of the main house from the garden in front of the reception rooms. The gate is timber with a tiled roof and an opening 1.6 meters wide; the high wall to either side is timber and tile too, running 16 meters in all.

A gate in the sukiya taste

The gate of the Okuno Family Residence Roji Gate and High Wall hangs a pair of board doors fitted with openwork transoms, and the small walls beside it are faced at the base with cedar bark. The agency says these touches of Sukiya-zukuri style give it a gentle character. A Roji is the garden path leading to a tea room, and a roji gate is the simple, deliberately rustic gate set at its entrance.

The city adds more detail. It is an elaborate Udekimon, a gate with eaves on bracket arms, with double doors and wing walls. The door frames are made of split logs, boards are fixed separately to the front and back of each leaf, and each carries a lattice window. The pivot hinges and the decorative strap fittings are of real quality.

The city places this work between the end of the Edo period and early Meiji. Taken with the agency record, it looks like part of an early-Meiji refit of the garden around the reception rooms.

Why it was registered, and what it did

The Okuno Family Residence Roji Gate and High Wall was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape of the country. The agency credits the gate and its flanking walls with creating a calm garden space together.

A village headman's house needed to keep the forecourt, where people came on everyday business, apart from the garden in front of the rooms where guests were entertained. After the outer gate row house and the middle gate, this roji gate is the last threshold before the reception rooms. The gates grow lighter as you move inward: a heavy gatehouse to the street, a delicate sukiya gate at the heart.

Names, and what to look for

Family records call the roji gate of the Okuno Family Residence Roji Gate and High Wall the "middle gate", while the gate registered as the middle gate appears in those records as the "inner gate". When reading documents, go by position rather than name.

If you get the chance to see it, look at the log door frames and the cedar-bark base of the side walls. Choosing materials that keep their natural shape, rather than squared timber, is the essence of sukiya taste.

Visiting

The Okuno Family Residence Roji Gate and High Wall stands inside the homestead, to the east of the front of the main house, and cannot be seen from the street. The grounds open for Sakura no Shōbei events and on café days, and during events held in the main house the gate and wall may be visible from the forecourt. Access varies from event to event, so ask in advance. Directions are on the Okuno Family Residence (Toyonaka) page.