Keywords
Architecture
Castles
Lit. regular side arrow.
1 An arrow, gun or cannon attack from inside a castle on the left side of advancing enemy lines. See *yokoya 横矢 1.
2 Castle structures built to attack the left side of advancing enemy lines. These included bent, curved, or indented embankments, ramparts and moats, and special compounds and towers for side attacks. See *yokoya 横矢 2. Jun'yokoya structures contained arrow holes and gun ports *sama 狭間. Medieval jun'yokoya were usually curved in shape. Complex side-attacking structures with right-angled or acute-angled bends were developed in the Edo period using stone-faced ramparts *ishigaki 石垣. A structure that allows shooting at the right side of an advancing army is called gyakuyokoya 逆横矢.