The Karamete-mon Gate building itself was often inconspicuous, being small and narrow and in some instances, the Karamete-mon Gate was built according to the specification of a compact Kabuki-mon gate and not a Yagura-mon gate, but it was very securely designed to be adequately guarded by a small number of people, in contrast to a large koguchi (castle entrance), such as the Ote-mon Gate.
建物自体は、小型で狭く目立たない仕様であることも少なくなく、櫓門ではなく小型の冠木門を建てるのみということもあったというが、きわめて厳重で大手門などの大きな虎口に比べて少人数で警備できるように設計してあった。