Japanese Gate Typology (24)

This is a series of posts describing the many varieties of Japanese gate, or mon (門). If you look at the preceding kanji more closely,  you can think of it as a picture of a pair of swinging doors, reminiscent of saloon doors in a wild west movie. I thought that it would be a nice idea to bring more awareness to a western audience as to the tremendous diversity in forms and types of Japanese gates. This series intends to be a gateway to gates.

Previous posts in this series:

1. Heijūmon 
2. Kabukimon 
3. Kōraimon 
4. Yakuimon 
5. Yotsu-ashimon 
6. Munamon 
7. Commentary
8. Uzumimon 
9. Yaguramon 
10. Rōmon
11. Shōrōmon
12. Taikomon
13. Nijūmon
14. Sanmon 
15. Niōmon 
16. Nitenmon
17. Sōmon 
18. Wakimon 
19. Chokushimon
20. Onarimon 
21. Tansōmon 
22. Zuijinmon 
23. Miyukimon 

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 A-ge-tsuchi-mon (上土門)

The gate (門) of the raised (上) earth (土). This is a gate with an earthen roof. The framing is similar to a munamon. 

Not very many examples of this type of gate exist. In fact, it is known primarily from one famous example, located at Hōryūji-Seion-in (法隆寺西園院) in Nara:

As you can see, there are two gates in the outer wall - the agetsuchimon is on the left.

A closer look (pic from JAANUS):

The roof under-surface consists of planks, atop which the clay/sand/straw mix, the tsuchi, is added. The narrow ends of the roof are bounded with decoratively-cut boards which attach to the purlins, and these help contain the earthen roof material. These boards are termed eburi-ita (柄振板) and you may have spotted them on other gates and walls seen in this series.

A view from the inside court yard shows the rear support posts:

A front elevation view:

Note the arrow pointing to the foundation of the main post. The foundation for this gate is a bit unusual, employing large rectangular chunks of wood under the main posts - these are termed kara-i-shiki (唐居敷), which means they are thought of as 'Chinese' in origin or style:
 

As it turns out, these foundation points are more usually made of stone, and in fact the word kara-i-shiki is a modification or corruption of kara-ishi-shiki (唐石敷), the middle character, ishi, 石, meaning 'stone'.

The kara-ishi-shiki is bored out for a door hinge pin in some cases (not in the case of the above gate however, which has post-hung doors):

All the above information about the gate at Hōryūji-Seion-in is interesting enough, however the example above does not actually have an earthen roof any more - it was replaced with bark shingles! The form remains, but not the substance.

I found one more example on the web of this gate, located at a residence in Nagoya city, however this is the best photo I could find:

  
All for today, a short post to balance some of the preceding longer ones, perhaps? The series will continue. Thanks for coming by.  On to post 25