Matsumoto Family Residence Rear Gate, Tile Shed and Fence

About the Rear Gate, Tile Shed and Fence

The Matsumoto Family Residence Rear Gate, Tile Shed and Fence (松本家住宅裏門・瓦小屋及び塀, Matsumoto-ke Jūtaku Uramon, Kawaragoya oyobi Hei) is a group of a gate, a small shed and a fence built around 1907 in Chuo-cho, Mibu Town, Tochigi Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on June 21, 2013. The wooden rear gate is 2.3 m wide, the tile shed is a single-story wooden structure with a building area of 6.6 m², and the fence runs 30 m in total; all three have tiled roofs.

The three are registered together as a single entry. Where the front gate holds the west side facing the old highway, this group secures the southeast edge of the Matsumoto estate.

Why It Was Registered

The registration number is 09-0211, under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that the gate, fence and shed form the outer boundary of the plot and, together with the main house and other buildings, create a dignified estate.

An estate's presence does not come from its big buildings alone. Gates and walls are what show where the property begins and ends, and only with them in place does the compound read as a whole from outside. The front gate and its wing walls close the west side; the rear gate and fence close the southeast.

What to Look For

The rear gate stands at the southeast of the plot with its ridge running north to south. It is a one-bay Yakuimon, a gate with a single opening between its main posts, roofed in the Kirizuma-zukuri gabled style with Sangawara-buki pantiles. At 2.3 m it is less than half the width of the 4.9 m front gate. Both are the same type of gate, but one was for show and one for daily comings and goings, and the difference in scale makes that plain.

The fence runs east and west from both ends of the gate. It is clad in Shitami-itabari, horizontal boards overlapped like clapboard, held in place by sasarako, slender vertical battens notched to fit the steps of the boards. The stepped boards and the vertical battens give the fence a fine texture of shadow lines.

At the fence's southeast end survives the tile shed, a small single-story building of 6.6 m². The Agency's wording is that the shed remains, and that a minor outbuilding has lasted at the corner of the plot is part of what makes the Matsumoto Family Residence Rear Gate, Tile Shed and Fence a record of a Meiji-period estate.

Visiting

The Matsumoto Family Residence Rear Gate, Tile Shed and Fence is part of a private estate, and you cannot enter through the gate. The grounds open only during special openings.

The gate and fence are on the southeast side of the estate, but how much can be seen from the road on that side has not been confirmed. Look and photograph only from the public road and keep the gateway clear for the residents. Access and opening information for the whole estate are on the Matsumoto Family Residence page.