Korai-mon Gate (高麗門)
Korai-mon Gate is one of the gate types in Japan.
Outlines
Korai-mon Gate is a castle gate which started to be constructed during the Bunroku-Keicho War from 1592 to 1598. It is a simplified type of the structure of the Yakui-mon gate (a gate architecture) with a large roof supported by Kagamibashira (main front pillars) and Hikaebashira (rear support pillars), for which ingenuity was exercised in reducing blind spots for defense by making the roof smaller. After the Edo period, many of them were constructed not only for castles but for shrines and temples, and for the gateways to towns as ｋido-mon gates, and so on.
Structure
Hashira (pillars) are composed of two Kagamibashira in front and two Hikaebashira in the rear. The four pillars stand upright, and a small Kirizuma yane (gable roof) is placed on the two Kagamibashira connected by a Kabuki (horizontal beam) and a small Kirizuma yane is also placed between the Kagamibashira and the Hikaebashira in the rear.
Until the Keicho era, the roof is placed directly on the Kabuki like the Himeji-jo Castle 'He no mon Gate' and the Nagoya-jo Castle 'Honmaru Ni no mon Gate,' but after the early Edo period, gates with Tsuka (short upright materials) on top of the Kabuki, which makes a wall extend upwards, came to be constructed like the Korai-mon Gate, Edo-jo Castle 'Soto sakurada mon Gate.'
Many Korai-mon Gates of shrines and temples are not equipped with doors due to their particular nature.
Major Korai-mon Gates
Sakurada-mon Gate
Matsuyama-jo Castle (Iyo Province) cultural properties
Hamaguri-gomon Gate
Konkai Komyo-ji Temple
Rikyu Hachimangu Shrine