Yamano Family Residence Nagayamon Gate

About the Yamano Family Residence Nagayamon Gate

The Yamano Family Residence Nagayamon Gate (山野家住宅長屋門, Yamano-ke Jūtaku Nagayamon) is a Meiji-era gatehouse fronting a sake-brewing family's compound in Kisabe, Katano City, Osaka Prefecture, listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2003. It was built in the Meiji era and moved to this site in the early Showa years.

A Nagayamon is a gate with rooms or storage bays strung out on either side of the passage, a form traditionally used for the front gates of samurai houses and leading village families. This one stands in the southwest part of the plot, facing south onto the road. It is a single-storey timber building with a hip-and-gable (Irimoya-zukuri) roof of pantiles, covers 123 square metres, and runs 18 bays along its length. Taking a bay at about 1.8 metres, the front stretches more than 30 metres.

For anyone approaching the Yamano Family Residence, the Yamano Family Residence Nagayamon Gate is the first thing you meet, and its long street wall is effectively the compound's public face.

Why It Was Registered

The gate was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs praises it as sturdy, high-quality work, pointing to eaves on the street side built in the Degeta-zukuri manner, with the rafters sealed in Shikkui plaster along with the rest of the soffit. It also notes the tall weatherboarding (Shitami-itabari) across the front and the two projecting lattice windows (Degōshi) and slatted Mushiko-mado openings that give the long facade its variety.

In degeta-zukuri, brackets projecting from the posts carry the eave beam well out from the wall. That supports a deep overhang and dresses up the front. Plastering the underside of the eaves right up to the rafters protects the timber from fire and gives a crisp white finish, so on the Yamano Family Residence Nagayamon Gate a single eave does double duty as fire protection and as a statement of standing.

Its sheer length counts too. A family that moved an 18-bay gatehouse onto its land in the early Showa years was clearly making a point about how its front should look.

What to Look For

Cross the road and step back. Close up, a facade of more than 30 metres will not fit in your field of view; from a distance you can take in the whole roof, gable end to gable end, and the rhythm of the wall beneath it.

The composition of the wall is the thing to notice. The weatherboarding does not stop at a low dado but climbs high up the elevation. The two lattice windows jut out from it, while the finely slatted mushiko-mado openings sit higher still. Because each window has its own shape and height, the long elevation never turns monotonous.

Then look up at the eaves. Beneath the projecting beams, every rafter has been sealed in plaster. Since the gate faces south, the front catches the light for much of the day, which makes the depth of the eaves and the lattice easy to read.

Visiting

Of all the buildings at the Yamano Family Residence, the gatehouse is the easiest to see. It faces the public road on the south side, so its front can be viewed freely from the street. The passage and the rooms inside are private and not open to visitors.

The gate is still the working entrance to the home and the brewery. If you stop to look, keep the gateway clear for vehicles and people, take photographs from the road, and avoid pointing your camera through the gate into the grounds.