Former Baba Family Residence West Gate and West Wall

What Are the Former Baba Family Residence West Gate and West Wall?

The Former Baba Family Residence West Gate and West Wall (旧馬場家住宅西門及び西塀, Kyū-Baba-ke Jūtaku Nishimon oyobi Nishibei) are an early Meiji-era (1868 to 1882) gate and boundary wall in Higashiiwasemachi, Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture, listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 1, 2016.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the gate as timber with a tiled roof and an opening 2.5 meters wide, and the wall as timber with a tiled roof, 37 meters long. They are classed as a structure rather than a building and registered together as one item, number 16-0116.

Together they close off the western edge of the property, the side farthest from Omachi Street.

Why the Former Baba Family Residence West Gate and West Wall Were Registered

The Former Baba Family Residence West Gate and West Wall were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape. The agency says they show how a shipping merchant gave the river-port side of his house a fine, formal front.

Why dress up the back of the house? Because it was not always the back. Toyama City notes that this side of the estate faced the Jinzu River until the early Showa era. In the kitamaebune years, cargo came off the river and through the west gate to the storehouses, and the city calls the gate and wall the family's entrance from the sea. If the main house was the front door on land, this was the front door on the water.

A road now runs outside the gate and the river is out of sight, but the quality of the workmanship still marks this as a side meant to be seen.

What to Notice About the Former Baba Family Residence West Gate and West Wall

The west gate stands a little south of the middle of the western boundary. It is a one-bay Udekimon, a gate whose roof rests on brackets projecting from the posts, and its pantiled roof swells gently upward in a convex curve, the reverse of the upswept eaves you see on temples.

Read the west wall from the ground up. At the bottom is a course of rounded boulders, topped by foundation stones. Above that the lower wall is faced with vertical boards, then comes a band of white Shikkui plaster, and pantiles finish the top. Stone, wood, plaster, and tile sit in four clean layers.

One of the photographs in the city's leaflet looks down a paved path through the garden to the west gate. That view along the axis of the estate is only available from inside the grounds.

Seeing the Former Baba Family Residence West Gate and West Wall

The Former Baba Family Residence West Gate and West Wall can be seen from the garden behind the main house, and the city's leaflet lists them among the highlights of a visit.

Because a road now runs outside the gate, you can also walk round to the back of the property to see the full length of the wall from outside. Watch for traffic when you stop to look.