Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery Nagayamon Gate

A Late Edo Gatehouse Facing the Muya Road

Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery Nagayamon Gate (本家松浦酒造場長屋門, Honke Matsuura Shuzōjō Nagayamon) is a Nagayamon gatehouse of the late Edo period in Ikenotani, Ōasa-chō, Naruto City, Tokushima Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 21, 2002. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to the late Edo period, with alterations in the late Meiji era.

Of the five registered buildings at Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery, the gatehouse stands farthest east, facing north onto the old Muya Kaidō road. The East, Middle and West sake storehouses follow one after another to its west, and the Nagayamon Gate closes the row at its eastern end. Its registration number is 36-0033, and it was listed as a contributor to the historic landscape.

Size and Layout of the Honke Matsuura Nagayamon Gate

According to the agency, the Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery Nagayamon Gate measures 4.5 by 3 ken (bays), with its ridge running east to west. It is a two-storey building under a gabled roof of round-and-flat tiles, with a building area of 54 square meters. The westernmost 1.5 ken form the gate passage, and rooms fill the rest.

Naruto City describes the gatehouse as a townhouse-style timber building, partly in fire-resistant storehouse construction, with a low upper floor of the Tsushi-nikai type. In the city's account, the ground-floor room served as a tamariba and the low loft above as quarters for maids. The second storey the agency records is presumably this loft.

Combining a gate and rooms under one roof is a familiar way to front a large property. Here the rooms look straight onto the brewery's street frontage, the first thing anyone on the road would see.

The Fire-Conscious East Gable of the Nagayamon Gate

The east gable is the part to look at. Its upper half is a thick plastered wall that buries the posts in white Shikkui, the ground floor is walled in brick, and a wing wall with a cloud-shaped outline projects at the northeast corner. The agency names this fire-conscious construction as the defining feature of the Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery Nagayamon Gate.

Red brick showing beneath white plaster is an unusual sight on a timber gatehouse. The building is dated "late Edo, altered late Meiji," but neither the agency nor the city says which parts were changed in the Meiji alterations.

Seen from the road, the cloud-shaped wing wall softens the hard outline of the gable with a single curve.

Visiting the Honke Matsuura Nagayamon Gate

Because the Nagayamon Gate fronts the Muya Kaidō, its exterior can be seen from the street. Walking the road from the east, the brick lower wall and the cloud-shaped wing wall of the east gable are right in front of you. The gate passage is at the building's west end.

We could not confirm whether the interior of the Honke Matsuura gatehouse is open to visitors. The brewery's free tours, about 45 minutes long and by reservation only, are described as covering the former brewing storehouse and the main house; ask when booking whether the gatehouse interior is included and whether photography is allowed.