Uto Family Residence Gate

What Is the Uto Family Residence Gate?

The Uto Family Residence Gate (宇藤家住宅門, also written Utō) is a Taisho-period gate of a farmstead in Hoshiya, Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on January 8, 2009 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records the Uto Family Residence Gate as a timber gate with a tile roof and an opening 1.9 metres wide. It dates from the Taisho period; the year column of the database gives 1912 to 1925. The nagayamon gate on the south is the front entrance of the compound, while this small gate opens on the west side.

A Gate Set in the Middle of the Wall

The Uto Family Residence Gate faces the garden west of the main house and is set in the middle of the tsuijibei wall that bounds the west side of the plot (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Its roof is a gable (kirizuma-zukuri) covered with pantiles (sangawara-buki).

The frame has 4 support posts (hikaebashira) set before and behind the main posts. Transverse beams called obari span the posts, and struts on the beams carry the ridge beam (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The eaves have a single tier of widely spaced rafters.

Wakayama Prefecture describes it as a simple gate in the earthen wall (dobei) on the west side.

Why It Was Registered

The Uto Family Residence Gate was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2009 under the criterion for structures that contribute to the historic landscape of the country (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency notes that the gate forms part of the west front of the compound as seen from the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage road. The formal front is the nagayamon gate on the south, but travellers on the old road saw the west wall and this gate: the second face of the Uto Family Residence.

What to Look For

Traces of red iron-oxide paint (bengara) remain on the Uto Family Residence Gate (Agency for Cultural Affairs). They suggest that the timber was once painted red; look for the colour in the recesses of the posts and beams.

The support posts, the beams above them, the struts and the ridge beam are easiest to read from the side. A single small gable rising from the middle of the wall is a marked contrast to the long nagayamon gate.

Visiting

The Uto Family Residence Gate belongs to a private home, and no information on public opening was found. Because it opens in the wall on the west boundary, its outer face can be seen from the road on the west. Beyond it lies the private garden of the main house, so please do not enter, and photograph with care.

Directions from Hoshiya Station and the layout of the whole compound are on the Uto Family Residence page.