Sumi Family Residence Gate Row House

What Is the Sumi Family Residence Gate Row House?

The Sumi Family Residence Gate Row House (角家住宅門長屋, Sumi-ke Jūtaku Mon-nagaya) is a single-story gate building with rooms, built around 1906 in Nishiarashima-cho, Yasugi City, Shimane Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2003. It is a timber structure with a tiled roof and a footprint of 36 square meters.

It stands on the east side of the Sumi estate, toward the north, and forms the entrance to the grounds. Registered as number 32-0015, the gate row house was listed for its contribution to the historic landscape, whereas the main house and guest room were registered for the quality of their design. Its value lies in how it shapes the face the estate presents to the outside.

A Store on One Side, a Room on the Other

A mon-nagaya combines a gateway with a long, low building, a type related to the Nagayamon seen at many large rural houses. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Sumi gate row house has a pair of hinged doors set slightly north of center. North of the gateway is a board-floored storage space; south of it is a living room fitted with a Tokonoma alcove.

The records do not say who used each space or for what. What they do make clear is that this was more than a passage: one half was finished as a proper room. Because the doors are shifted north, the room on the south side is the larger of the two.

No Red Tiles on the Sumi Gate Row House

The roof of the Sumi Family Residence Gate Row House is a hipped-and-gabled Irimoya-zukuri form covered in Sangawara-buki pantiles. The walls are plastered in white Shikkui above, with boarding on the lower part, a plain two-tone finish suited to a working building.

The Agency's note makes a point of saying that, unlike the main house, the gate row house does not use red tiles. Both were built around 1906, yet the household chose different roofing for the house and the gate, and the contrast in roof color is one of the easier things to compare between the two buildings.

The Agency presents the Sumi gate row house as a building that conveys the look of the countryside in the late Meiji period.

Visiting the Sumi Family Residence Gate Row House

No public opening of the Sumi Family Residence, including this gate building, has been announced. Do not pass through the gate onto the grounds. If you would like to visit or take photographs, contact the Culture Division of the Yasugi City Board of Education beforehand.

As the gate building on the east side, the Sumi gate row house is the registered structure closest to the edge of the plot, though how much of it can be seen from the road has not been confirmed. Directions and general visiting conditions are covered on the Sumi Family Residence page.