Jizoji Temple Hojuin Middle Gate and Wall

A Wall Gate That Screens the Inner Garden

Jizoji Temple Hojuin Middle Gate and Wall (地蔵寺寳珠院中門及び塀, Jizōji Hōjuin Chūmon oyobi Hei) is a wooden gate and wall built in the Taisho era (1912 to 1926) in Matsushima-cho, Komatsushima City, Tokushima Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 29 November 2016. Inside the Hojuin residence owned by Jizoji Temple, it divides the ground beyond the front gate into an approach to the entrance and a private inner garden.

It runs due south from beside the entrance of the main house until it meets the front wall. The wall has a pan-tiled (Sangawara-buki) top. On a base of stones, vertical boards are lapped one over the next; above them the wall is finished in white Shikkui plaster with a band of bamboo lattice (Renji-mado) set in like a transom.

In the middle of the wall opens a gate one bay wide with a pair of hinged plank doors. It is a gate cut into the wall itself, quieter and more inward-looking than a free-standing gateway.

Two Lengths on Record, and Why It Was Registered

The official record gives two figures. The structure entry lists the gate as 1.2 metres wide and the wall as 5.9 metres long in total, while the description gives a total length of 7.1 metres. The difference equals the width of the gate, so the description appears to measure the whole run including the gate, though the record does not say so.

The Jizoji Temple Hojuin Middle Gate and Wall was registered for "contributing to the historic landscape of the country," and the official description calls it a wall that sets the landscape of the property in order.

The main house places its formal reception room in the southwest corner, facing the garden. This short wall keeps visitors coming through the front gate on the path to the entrance rather than letting them walk straight into the garden. The quiet of the garden as seen from the reception room depends on it.

Boards below and white plaster with bamboo lattice above make the wall heavy at the bottom and light at the top. Seen from the garden side, light and air pass through the lattice, so the screen never closes completely.

What to Look For

Look for the lapped vertical boards, the bamboo lattice set into the plastered upper wall, and the plank-doored gate in the middle. Compare them with the cloud-shaped openwork of the front gate and the copper coping of the outer wall: the same Taisho builders used a different register for the face turned to the street and the face turned inward.

Seeing the Middle Gate and Wall

The Jizoji Temple Hojuin Middle Gate and Wall lies inside the front gate and can only be glimpsed from the road through the front gate. The grounds are a private, temple-owned residence with no scheduled openings; contact Jizoji Temple in advance for a closer look.