Two weeks ago I posted about stopping by the grounds of Kyoto's old imperial palace to check out its fall foliage, which at the time was still pretty minimal. While there, I noticed something interesting about the little entrance gate that I happened to have used (perhaps the smallest of the nine that dot the perimeter of the park)....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/4.5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Imadegawa Mikado
Northern gate to the Imperial Residence in Kyoto

It's a tiny, insignificant gate that one doesn't even really notice, but I happened to have parked my scooter next to it, and while getting ready to depart, I noticed what appears to be a repair in one of the large support columns (the one nearest my scooter in the shot above).

From the side...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/4.5, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Structural Repair?
Lower-left: modern
Upper-right: original

I don't know for sure anything about it, but I suspect it's a repair, replacing the lower portion of the support (perhaps after it rotted away over time). The black square in the middle is where a piece of wood was shoved a bit too far in, but nevertheless it effectively locks the new lower part into the old upper part. The upper part ends just at the bottom of the “V” of the lower boot, so from the front the seam is covered by the boot and you don't see any evidence of repair...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/4.5, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
From the Front

Again, this is all supposition on my part, but I thought it was cool. I guess I'm geeky that way. I've recently done two other posts about interesting woodworking, one a wooden gear in Japan and another 1800s building techniques in America.

As for wooden gates, the one in today's post is tiny, and much larger and imposing ones are found all over, including in previous posts in my blog at least here, here, here, and here.