A gate built like a castle gate

Reconstructed in Kansei 4 (1792)—a date confirmed by a 2006 survey—the gate is a nagayamon, a long house pierced by a central passage, measuring about 13.19 metres across, 3.72 metres deep and 6.83 metres high, beneath an irimoya roof of clay tiles. The triple-bay structure carries a pair of large double-leaf doors, while rooms flanking the passage once housed the family's attendant samurai, complete with a bench-like tomomachi seat for waiting retainers.↗↗

Look for the details that signal its rank: sparse rafters under the eaves, gleaming white plaster walls, narrow warrior windows (musha-mado) that also served as lookout and gun ports, and a low sub-visitable band along the base. Demon-slaying roof tiles and the six-ring coin crest of the Yazawa set into the gable give the gate its castle-gate gravitas. Damaged by fire in 2005, it was brought back to its former appearance after roughly two years of restoration.↗↗

Walking the samurai streets of Matsushiro

The gate rises on the east corner where the road from Nagaden Matsushiro Station meets an old east-west lane. That lane is the tojo-kaido, the ceremonial approach to Matsushiro Castle used in the domain era, and both sides were once lined with the residences of Sanada chief retainers. The Yazawa front gate is the best surviving marker of that grand streetscape, so it makes a natural stop on a walk through the castle town's historic quarter.↗↗