Takasagoya (Castle Town Tottori Community Center) Side Gate

A Small Gate at the Edge of the Street

Takasagoya (Castle Town Tottori Community Center) Side Gate (高砂屋（城下町とっとり交流館）脇門, wakimon) is an early-Showa gate in Motodaiku-cho, Tottori City, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 31 July 2007.

It is attached to the east side of the main house, near the street front of the Shop Wing, and closes off the garden on that side from the road. It is a timber structure with a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof of Sangawara-buki tile, recorded in the national database as 2.6 metres wide.

The opening itself is only 1 metre wide, a simple udegimon hung with a wooden door that swings inward. In an udegimon, short arms projecting from the posts carry the overhang of the roof, a modest form common for side entrances to townhouses and temples.

The roof of the Takasagoya Side Gate extends to either side, so the full 2.6 metres reads as a single stretch of lime-plastered wall, with Shitami-itabari clapboarding along its lower half.

Why It Was Registered: Matching the Tiles

The registry entry makes one point about the Side Gate: it uses the same roof tiles as the main house to keep the exterior unified.

Although it was added in the early Showa years, matching the Meiji main house tile for tile completes the Takasagoya frontage right to its eastern end. Shop Wing, Residential Wing and gate together make up the face the house presents to the street.

A 1-metre opening is not a front entrance for carts or customers; it is the size of a service door for the household going in and out of the garden. The gate is deliberately low-key, but its white wall, boarded base and tile line echo the main house and help hold together the look of a castle-town merchant street.

What to Look For

Stand across the street and take in the Shop Wing and the Side Gate together. The line of identical tiles runs from the eaves of the house onto the gate roof without a break.

Then step up to the gate and look under the roof at the projecting arms. The udegimon's structure is right there to see. Up close, the three layers of the design, extended roof, plastered wall and clapboard base, are also easy to pick out.

Visiting the Side Gate

Because it faces the street, the Takasagoya Side Gate can be seen from outside at any time. The house's website says nothing about the gate being opened for use, so enter through the Shop Wing.

To see the gate from the garden side you need to visit during opening hours. The road carries traffic, so take care if you are photographing from the opposite pavement.