shiraki bashira 素木柱

Also written 白木柱, pronounced shiroki bashira. A tree trunk with its bark removed and used as a pillar. Its surface is shaved until it is as smooth as satin. The pillar was used for constructing shrines, temples and dwellings of the elite until the 12th and 13th centuries, when such pillars began to be decorated with painted pictures alternating with circles of metal. Examples: Chūsonji *Konjikidō 中尊寺金色堂 (1124) in Iwate Prefecture; Hōkaiji Amidadō 法界寺阿弥陀堂 (late 12th to early 13th century) in Kyoto.