Yokouchi Family Residence Front Gate

A gatehouse in front of the main house

The Yokouchi Family Residence Front Gate (横内家住宅表門, omotemon) in Shijocho, Higashiosaka City, Osaka Prefecture, is a Nagayamon-type gatehouse built in the early Meiji period (1868-1882); it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2015.

The Yokouchi front gate stands directly in front of the main house and serves as the entrance to the whole compound. Like other nagayamon, it combines the gateway with rooms on either side under one long roof. It is a single-storey timber structure covering 33 m², altered in the early Shōwa period (1926-1945).

A roof that steps down at the doorway

The roof is a gabled form in pantiles. Over the gateway, set a little east of centre, and over the storage room at the east end, the ridge drops a step, a treatment known as Ochimune. On the long roofline these steps make it plain from the street where the way in is.

The gateway has a pair of hinged plank doors, and on their west side hangs a small Kugurido, a wicket door that lets people pass while the main doors stay shut.

Grey plaster and watchman's windows

The walls of the Yokouchi Family Residence Front Gate are finished in nezumi shikkui, a mouse-grey lime plaster. Set into them are Yorikimado, barred windows of the kind once associated with the houses of samurai officials, and projecting Degōshi lattices. Along the base runs weatherboarding held by thin vertical battens.

Inside, the west room is fitted out as a sukiya-style tatami room. A solid gate on the outside and a cultivated room within: that double character sets this gate apart, and the interior work matches the early Shōwa refit of the main house.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that the gate gives the property its imposing street front. It was registered on August 4, 2015 (number 27-0633), under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

Visiting

The Yokouchi front gate belongs to a private home. We found no information on access to the gate rooms or the sukiya room as of October 2026.

As the face of the compound, its outer walls and stepped roof can probably be seen from the public road. Standing in the gateway would block the household's comings and goings, so view it briefly from a little distance.