agesudo 揚簀戸

Keywords
Architecture
Tea Houses

Lit. raised lattice door. A type of small middle gate or wicket *kido 木戸, used to divided a tea garden *roji 露地, into outer and inner areas. The gate has a frame of whole bamboo with split bamboo woven into a diamond shape or basket-weave pattern, and tied with palm rope. It is then hung from the lintel to serve as a shield-shape, tateshiki 楯式, door. This is called the lintel wicket style, magusa kidoshiki まぐさ木戸式. Before guests enter the garden, the agesudo is pushed up with a wooden or bamboo stick, and braced against a stone to prop the door open. When such a form first appeared in the Momoyama period, it was called a flip-up door, hanekido 揆木戸 or *agedo 揚げ戸, but throughout the Edo period, it was called hajitomi 半蔀. Representative examples are found at Tensetsudō 点雪堂 at Omotesenke 表千家 in Kyoto and Joan 如庵 in Aichi Prefecture. A sub-type is the *saimyōji shiorido 西明寺枝折戸.