Tsuchiya Family Residence Zashiki Gate and Wall

What the Tsuchiya Family Residence Zashiki Gate and Wall Is

The Tsuchiya Family Residence Zashiki Gate and Wall (土屋家住宅座敷門及び塀, Tsuchiya-ke Jūtaku Zashikimon oyobi Hei) is a gate and earthen wall of the early Meiji era, built between 1868 and 1882, in Enzan-Mikkaichiba, Koshu City, Yamanashi Prefecture, and listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2 May 2017. Together they enclose the inner garden on the south side of the main house. The gate is a Munamon, a simple roofed gate on two posts, 1.7 metres wide; the wall runs 34 metres in all, turning a corner along the way. Both are roofed with pantiles.

A zashiki gate is usually a second entrance, separate from the everyday one, that lets guests pass straight into the garden in front of the formal rooms. At the Tsuchiya estate it stands apart from the main entrance of the house and leads only into the southern garden.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the gate as timber with a tiled roof and the wall as a tiled earthen wall. Gate and wall are registered together as a single property.

Why It Was Listed

The Tsuchiya Family Residence Zashiki Gate and Wall was listed for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency's description credits gate and wall with forming, together with the main house, a high-quality landscape of a modern Japanese farmhouse.

The key word is together. The main house is a big working farmhouse, its roof stacked with extra floors for silkworms. Wrap its southern garden in a gate and wall, and the same house gains a formal face for receiving visitors. Against the tall house, a long low line of tiles crosses in front of the garden. The value lies less in gate or wall alone than in the line they draw before the house.

The wall is also carefully finished. The earth render changes colour above and below waist height, and along the top a row of diagonal cross battens lightens what would otherwise be a heavy mass of clay. A wall built only to keep people out would not need any of this.

What to Look For

On the Tsuchiya Family Residence Zashiki Gate and Wall, look first for the change of colour on the wall. A horizontal band at waist height divides two tones of earth, and that band keeps 34 metres of wall from reading as one flat surface.

Then look at the top of the wall, where the diagonal battens replace solid earth. The mass opens up under the eaves, so the tiled roof seems to float rather than press down.

The gate is small, 1.7 metres across, narrower than the 2.3-metre rear gate in the north side of the estate. It was not built to move people or goods in numbers. Read it as a threshold into the garden and the modest width makes sense.

Follow the wall to its corner. Because it turns rather than running straight, it wraps around the garden and sets it apart as an enclosed space.

Visiting

The Tsuchiya Family Residence Zashiki Gate and Wall belongs to the Tsuchiya family's home, and you cannot pass through the gate into the garden. No viewing arrangements or open days were found (checked 24 September 2026).

The estate also houses a family winery. If you call at the shop, ask the staff whether you may go where the gate and wall can be seen, and whether photographs are welcome. The wall encloses a private garden, so please do not peer over it.

Directions to the estate and the shop's opening conditions are on the Tsuchiya Family Residence page.