Keywords
Architecture
Castles
Lit. Square-shape mansion. A medieval fortified military-class mansion that is surrounded by a square-shaped, or more commonly rectangular-shaped, earthen embankment *doi 土居 and moat *hori 堀. The scale of such mansions was about 110 m (one chō 町) per side; large-scale mansions were built to reflect the power of their military lords. Excavated evidence demonstrates that many hōkeiyakata ranged from 130 m to 150 m in length.