Shotokukan East Wall

About the Shotokukan East Wall

The Shotokukan East Wall (樟徳館東塀, Shōtokukan Higashibei) is a roofed boundary wall of 1939 running beside the Nagase River in Hishiyanishi 2-chome, Higashiosaka City, Osaka Prefecture, and it became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on October 18, 2000. About 24 meters long, it encloses the east side of Shotokukan, the former private home of Mori Heizo, founder of the Shoin Gakuen schools.

The Shotokukan East Wall starts at the north end of the gate on the east side of the grounds and runs north along the river. The south wall, built the same way, leaves the gate's other end, so this wall forms the northern arm of the frontage. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database records it as timber with a tiled roof and a length of 24 meters.

Why It Was Registered

The Shotokukan East Wall was registered as a model of form. The Agency's commentary notes the planted strip between the wall and the riverside road, and says that together with the gate it creates a relaxed, open frontage.

The praise rests as much on the wall's distance from the street as on its construction. Rather than rising straight off the edge of the road, the Shotokukan East Wall sits behind a band of greenery. From the pavement, the plastered wall and its line of tiles appear slightly withdrawn behind the planting, which gives the front of the estate an unhurried air.

Exposed Posts and a Tiled Coping

The Shotokukan East Wall is built in the Shinkabe manner on a timber sill: posts stand on a sill laid on the ground and remain visible on the face of the wall, with the panels between them filled in. Stand in front and the posts, evenly spaced, mark the long surface into a steady rhythm of vertical lines.

The finish changes from bottom to top. The lower band is clad in boards, a Koshiita that takes splashback from rain and the knocks of passers-by, and above it the wall is earthen plaster. A small roof of Sangawara-buki tiles caps the top and keeps the rain off the plaster.

From its junction with the gate, the Shotokukan East Wall runs straight north. The roofline steps down from the gently swelling roof of the gate to the low tiled coping of the wall, a progression best seen by taking in gate and wall together as one frontage.

Seeing the Shotokukan East Wall

The Shotokukan East Wall faces the road along the Nagase River, so its outside can be seen at any time. Walk north from the gate and you can follow its full length past the planting. The change from boards to plaster and the spacing of the posts are easier to judge from the far side of the planting than from close up.

The inside of the Shotokukan East Wall is school property and can only be entered during the public opening held once every four years. The planted strip is part of the grounds too, so please look from the road.