The Zeze Gate Will Be the Only Tokugawa ( 徳川 )-Built Gate in the U.S.
Portland Japanese Garden has been selected as the recipient of a significant cultural property from Japan – a castle gate originally built at the turn of the 17th century just a few years before the beginning of Japan’s Edo Period (1603-1868). The Zeze Castle Korai Gate by Tokugawa Ieyasu, or “Zeze Gate” for short, once stood as the southern-most entrance to Japan’s Zeze Castle in Ōtsu. In 2023, the gate will be installed at the start of the hill in the Entry Garden, replacing the Antique Gate which has stood there since the 1970s.
How did this treasured piece of Japanese history find its way to the Garden? In 2021, Portland Japanese Garden’s International Advisory Board Member, Mimi Gardner Gates – who is an Asian art scholar and Director Emerita of Seattle Art Museum – put Steve Bloom, CEO of Portland Japanese Garden in touch with her friend, Akemi Saitoh. Saitoh, chairwoman of the Yasuhiko & Akemi Saitoh Foundation, was steward of the Zeze Gate by way of the Hosomi family. Saitoh, along with master craftsmen from Japan, were given a tour of the Garden hosted by Bloom. Stunned by Portland Japanese Garden’s beauty and authenticity and satisfied that the Garden’s mission aligned with their own, the Yasuhiko & Akemi Saitoh Foundation decided to donate the Zeze Gate to Portland Japanese Garden. Embellished with the Imperial Chrysanthemum and the Tokugawa dynasty crests, this is the only Tokugawa gate without the designation of being a national cultural treasure, making it the only of its kind able to be transported beyond Japan’s borders.
The Zeze Gate will be placed at the start of the hill in the Entry Garden, replacing the Antique Gate. The Zeze Gate’s installation, combined with transplanting of the flora and re-setting of stones, will introduce a notable change to how guests enter Portland Japanese Garden. The Antique Gate was erected in 1976 by then-Garden Director Michio Wakui and our first female gardener, Sharon Riddell. Originally planned to be a passageway to the Pavilion Gallery, it was placed in its current location at the Entry Garden when construction on the Pavilion Gallery was delayed. Now, the Antique Gate will become a cherished addition to the forthcoming Japan Institute campus.
Plans for the Zeze Gate’s arrival and placement are currently being developed, with the hope that this project will be finished by the end of 2023. More information will be shared in the coming months!
THE HISTORY BEHIND THE ZEZE GATE
Zeze Castle was the first stronghold constructed under the orders of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), a monumental figure who helped unify the disparate territories of Japan into one nation and was the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate that would rule Japan for over 260 years. Zeze Castle featured stone walls that spread into Lake Biwa, Japan’s largest freshwater lake.
One of the many strongholds dismantled during the Meiji Restoration (1868-1889), little remains of Zeze Castle today: some stone walls too cumbersome to remove and its gates. The Zeze Gate itself was first donated in 1871 to Takebe Shrine, a significant cultural landmark in Shiga Prefecture. However, in 1934 the devastating Typhoon Muroto struck Japan. Among the many structures that were damaged was the Zeze Gate.
After its collapse, the Zeze Gate was purchased by industrialist and art collector Kokouan Hosomi. After its repair, the Zeze Gate was privately held by the Hosomi family at their family home in Izumiotsu, a port town on Osaka Bay. Unfortunately, this would not be the last time it encountered the destructive force of a typhoon. In 2018, it was among the property destroyed by Typhoon Number 21.
A few months later, the gate’s materials were collected in hopes an organization would step forward to restore it. After a long search, Akemi Saitoh, an acquaintance of the Hosomi family and chairwoman of the Yasuhiko & Akemi Saitoh Foundation, stepped forward to become its steward. Saitoh would retain the highly regarded Sankaku-ya, Inc. to carry out the monumental task of bringing the gate back to its former glory.
THE ROLES OF GATES IN JAPANESE CULTURE
Aside from being physical protection to fend off enemies, gates in Japan have always had special cultural significance. Geomancy, or the art of arranging buildings within a site, was introduced to Japan from China. Incorporating tenants of feng shui, ancient rulers and feudal lords would place symbolic and decorative gates in spiritually important locations. For example, gates that embodied guardian angels would be situated in northeastern and southwestern quarters as they both were within the devil’s path. In other contexts, they provided a supernatural defense against evil spirits and ill fortune.
In geomancy, energy flow, known as ki, is paramount and is present in all Japanese garden design principles. Gates have been viewed as pivotal because ki is believed to come in and out through them. In fact, feudal lords in Japan would pay as much attention to the structure and aesthetics of gates as they did to their tenshu (castle keep).
As explained by Arlene Schnitzer Curator of Culture, Art, and Education, Aki Nakanishi.
