A decorative pattern incorporating a swirling indented oval *mokkō 木瓜 motif.

Also mosaku 模作, mosha 模写, mokosaku 模古作. Works of art such as statues which are copies of…

Also written 裳層. Also pronounced shōkai. A pent roof enclosure usually one bay deep. Its structure may extend from…

Wooden sculpture. While wooden sculptures are relatively rare in India and China, wood has traditionally been the chief…

Wood picture. Also called mokue 木絵. A technique of wood decoration, called hirazōgan 平象嵌 (flat inlay, see…

Also read bokuhitsu. Lit. "wooden brush."

1　A charred wooden stick used for underdrawings.…

A somewhat ambiguous term meaning landscape. Because the curving root of a tree, moku 木, was thought to resemble…

Also called daiku kōji 大工工事.

1　All wood construction.

2　The…

Also mokkotsuzō. The wood framework of a building as distinct from the walls.

Sometimes written 杢目. Also called mokuri 木理 or kime 肌目. The wood grain exposed when a log is cut…

Also mokushin kanshitsuzou 木心乾漆像, mokushin kanshitsu-zukuri 木心乾漆造. Lit. "wood-core dry lacquer." A method…

Wooden construction material including lumber, wood,and timber. All parts of heavy branches and tree trunks jukan…

Architectural structures constructed mainly of timber. The term is used even if the walls are plastered and the roofing is…

Lit. "celebration of autumn leaves." A pictorial subject based on Chapter 7 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale…

Lit. "hunting for maple leaves." The traditional pastime of viewing autumn foliage in the mountains. The term dates back at…

Lit. "unhulled rice pagoda." A small wooden votive pagoda carved with a knife. It is related to *…

Lit. "peach boy." Hero of one of Japan's best-loved tales. A tiny boy discovered inside a large peach soon grows into a…

Also Azuchi-momoyama jidai 安土桃山時代. Lit. "peach mountain period." The Momoyama period (1568-1615) during which Japan…

Gate. Also read kado. A suffix which refers to a gate, of which there are many types. Style: the structural style…

Also written 紋様. A design pattern, frequently using geometric shapes or abstracted images of natural or man-made objects.…

The quarters for the caretaker of the main gate of a Japanese temple. These may be attached to or near the main gate.

Also read monchū. Posts or pillars to which gates are attached.

Lit. "gate foundation stones." A large, flat stepping stone *yaku-ishi 役石…

Tile with a motif composed of kanji 漢字 characters that usually form the name of a temple. The use of character…

An abbreviation of Monjushiri 文殊師利 (also Manjushiri 曼殊室利), which transliterates Sk. Manjusri. Also translated Myōkichijō 妙吉祥…

A small Buddhist hall dedicated to the Bodhisattva of wisdom *Monju 文殊 (Sk. Manjusri) who usually is…

Lit. "gate crowning." A tree planted by a garden gate so that its branches extend over the gate. In some cases the branches…

A railed timber platform built on the roofs of urban vernacular houses *machiya…

Lit. "scenery-viewing stone." An alternate name for the *gakumi-ishi 額見石,…

A watch tower compound built on high ground apart from the main castle compound, from where the movement of enemy forces can…

A general term for a small room or simple structure where objects such as items of equipment, tools, containers and utensils…

A type of settlement of lesser officials and servants which developed around the precincts of great shrines and temples…

Also pronunced monzenchō. A settlement in front of the main gate of a temple (or *…

Woods. The sacred grove of trees planted in front of a shrine by a landscape designer.

An abbreviation of moriage zaishiki 盛上彩色. Pigment or shell-white *gofun…

Sometimes abbreviated to morishita 森下. Handmade paper *washi 和紙 made in…

Alcove ornaments found in tea ceremony rooms of various types. The term morokazari is derived from the time when…

Ch: wanglianghua. Lit. "apparition ghostly paintings." A style of ink figure painting that contrasts ethereal forms…

Lit. "to make a copy." A copy of an artwork. In the case of painting and calligraphy, it is specifically called *…

A copy of an original painting or work of calligraphy. More specific terms, such as *…

A plane used to curve the grooves in a doorsill or lintel. Unlike the *mizoganna 溝鉋,…

1　The core of a building. Prior to the introduction of Buddhism the term moya meant the central…

Also *moya 母屋. Purlins; horizontal members placed between and parallel to the…

Any two-dimensional pattern. Also used more specifically to refer to decorative motifs or patterns of repeated motifs set…

Asanga and Vasubandhu, two 5th century Indian brothers instrumental in founding the Hossō 法相 school of Buddhism. Asanga (Jp…

Also osagomai or usakomai 小狭小舞; 小来舞. Four slender wooden members, square at their inner ends, and circular…

Also written 無方塔. Also *kaisantō 開山塔 or *…

A second raised-floor area at the lower end *shimote 下手, of…

A gate that has two supporting posts, sodebashira 袖柱, in front of and behind the main pillars to carry the…

Also often read mukōkaramon. A four-legged gate *shikyakumon…

A design motif that consists of birds or butterflies with outspread wings arranged facing each other, mukai 向い to…

Inorganic pigment. Insoluble pigments *ganryō 顔料 made from…

A board, usually of pine but sometimes Japanese cedar, placed between a normal sized host's mat *…

Also pronounced mukai-zukuri. A style used for the main building *honden…

One part of the joint used when eaves supports *kayaoi 茅負 or flying rafter…

Also mukōgiriro 向切炉. Mukōgiri refers to *hongatte 本勝手 and…

Also *tsumairi 妻入; mukōzuma-zukuri 向妻造; *…

Lit. "camber." In traditional Japanese architecture, a roof surface or individual member with convex curves as opposed to…

A camber roof. A roof with convex curve from eave end *nokisaki 軒先, to ridge…

Also called mekurashikii 盲敷居, *mume 無目, nume 滑, or mume…

Lit. "smooth or flat." A prefix used to indicate that a threshold or sill *shikii…

Ridge tag. A narrow, wooden tag or marker, measuring from 30 cm to 1 m long, upon which pertinent information regarding a…

A ridge pole or ridge beam. The topmost horizontal member in a roof. It receives the upper ends of the rafters.

Also pronounced kyōkō. A protective breast-plate found on Buddhist guardian deities *…

Ridge beam. Also called munegata, munagata, munegeta 棟桁; *…

A general term for the rows of decorative tiles used along the ridge of a structure. The tiles have many patterns, for…

Also osabashira 小狭柱 or futabashira 二柱. A generic name for pillars which rise from the ground to…

Also called munekado. A simple gate with two circular pillars, a gable roof *…

Also read munezutsumi.

1　A general term used to refer to any tile stacked high in layers…

Also called *munagi 棟木. A ridge. Mune includes not only the main ridge at the very…

Also muneage 棟上; jōtōsai 上棟祭; jōtōshiki 上棟式. A ridge-raising ceremony that takes place upon…

Also read munagawara. Lit. "ridge tiles." A generic term for the tiles used to cover the apex of the roof.…

A generic name for the ornaments added to the ridge of a thatched or wooden roof to protect the roof-ridge, and to symbolize…

The main ridge pole that extends beyond the end of a roof surface and abuts against the footplate ashimoto 足元, of…

Lit. "tiles at the corners of the ridge." A generic term for the ogre tile *onigawara…

Lady Murasaki (978?-1014?), most famous writer of the Heian period and subject of several paintings. Her Genji…

1　Abbreviation of murasaki-iro 紫色. Purple color. Purple, as mentioned in the Nihon shoki …

1　In Japan's earliest compilations, the 8th century Kojiki 古事記 and Nihon shoki 日本書紀, a…

Also called *horadoko 洞床 or tsuchidoko 土床. An alcove…

Also Ashikaga jidai 足利時代. The Muromachi period (1392-1568). The period derives its name from a district in Kyoto which…

1　A name given to the *amidadō 阿弥陀堂, a temple hall dedicated…

Lit. "Musashi 武蔵 plain." A part of the Kantō 関東 plain which extends south from Kawagoe 川越 City in Saitama Prefecture to…

Lit. "an unvoiced poem." Painting as a medium which conveys meaning without sound. The Chinese believed that although poetry…

1　A category of *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 prints that depicted battle…

Lit. "warrior run." The wide section built inside a wall on the level top of an earthen embarkment *…

Lit. "hidden warriors." A small room closed off from the raised-floor area *jōdan…

Also bukemado 武家窓, bugyōmado 奉行窓. Edo period windows with heavy vertical lattice bars, used in castle…

Also written 蒸子格子. A type of lattice *kōshi 格子 used on windows…

A type of window containing a lattice of *mushiko gōshi 虫籠格子, set into the upper part…

Also musō orekugi 無双折釘. A type of nail used to hang a scroll in an alcove *…

Abbreviated term for musō renjimado 無双連子窓, also further shortened to musō 無双. A window made of narrow…

Lit. "Corrective on Gardens of the Musō Lineage." A late Edo period treatise on landscape gardening. According to the…

Lit. "six jewelled rivers." Six famous rivers all named Tamagawa 玉川 located in six different Japanese prefectures. They…

Sometimes abbreviated to mutesaki 六手先. Six-stepped bracket complexes as seen on the great south gate, Tōdaiji *…

A Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing a fierce, old man. The shape of…

A pillared gate-like entrance to a Shinto shrine, developed around the 9th century. The most common type of shrine entrance…

Sk: Sudrsti, also Sonshōō 尊星王 or Hokushin bosatsu 北辰菩薩. Originally a deification of the Polestar, …

Translation of Sanskrit vidyaraja, meaning spell-king. Vidya literally means knowledge, but in Esoteric Buddhism mikkyō…

A suffix meaning style or type frequently used in Japanese architectural history.