Keywords
Architecture
Castles
A decoy wall, or pseudo-wall. A wall that was built so as to hang over an earthen embankment or stone wall of a castle. When an attacking enemy approached, the decoy wall would be cut down and allowed to fall outside onto the troops below. Kusunoki Masahige 楠正成 (1294-1336) used this type of wall at his Chihaya-jō 千早城 and Akasaka-jō 赤阪城. Taiheiki 太平記 (ca. 1372) also mentions the tsuribei.