Lit. "shinden-style garden." The quintessential Heian period garden that was built in the central courtyard of…

A mortuary hall. One example is the rear part of the *Kaisandō 開山堂 at Eihōji…

An old name for purple pigments *ganryō 顔料 and dyes senryō…

Also called ottate daruki 追立垂木, munashita ogamidaruki 棟下拝垂木, shigaya daruki 枝茅垂木, and shinkai…

A hanging scroll with a literary inscription written above an ink painting. This format is a visual extension of the ancient…

1　Also shigami 獅噛 (biting lion), or hagami 歯噛 (biting teeth). A Noh mask *…

Shigaraki 信楽 ware. Sueki 須恵器 ware was made in this clay-rich area from early times, but a distinctive ware fired in…

Closely spaced, parallel rafters. If the underside of a rafter and the space between it and the next rafter are equal, thus…

An unintentional unevenness or irregularity in workmanship.

An angled joint. There are two general types of shiguchi.

1　watashigake shiguchi…

Lit. "drizzle fence." A type of fence in which bunches of bamboo and bush clover are secured by the top bar of a fence so as…

1　A square paving stone, panel or other structural element. When square paving stones or tiles are laid…

A pattern of square paving stones, tiles, or marquetry etc. Each piece is laid on the diagonal, so that all the meeting…

A dovetail splicing joint *aritsugi 蟻継, made in such way that the dovetails…

Structural members that slant inward in four directions. Examples include the corner pillars of some belfries *…

Lit. "Buddhas of the four directions water basin." A type of water basin made from reused objects *…

A paper support for painting or calligraphy.

Various joinery techniques used to insert beams, bracket arms *sashihijiki 挿肘木 or upper…

Lit. "four quarters piling." Also termed masugatazumi 桝形積 (square measuring box piling), and chikei-no-…

A pictorial subject taken from "Shiigamoto" ("Beneath the Oak"), Chapter 46 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale…

Ch: si'erhu. A jar with four lug handles (loop ears) around the mouth or neck of the jar, the handles may be round…

Also read edajiro 枝城. Also hajō 端城. Lit. "branch castle." A fortification, other than the main castle…

Lit. "pictures of the riverbed at fourth avenue Shijōgawara 四条河原." Shijōgawara was the amusement center of Kyoto…

Also written 仕懸本. A type of book which flourished during the Bunsei 文政 and Tenpō 天保 eras (1818-1844) and contained …

An abbreviation for *shikamibori 顰彫. Formerly also written shikami 獅噛. The…

Often abbreviated as *shikami 顰. The gouged-out or indented part of a moulding *…

Also ikka shiken 一花四間. A type of decorative flower pattern painted on coffered ceilings. Coffers *…

Also written 四厥, also kongōketsu 金剛厥. Lit. "four pickets." A set of four posts, put up at each corner of a…

Paintings of the four seasons. The term designates representations of Japanese landscapes, flora, and people engaged in…

A stone-cutting technique for paving stones. According to certain tea ceremony sources various sized stones were used for…

Paintings of birds and flowers representative of each of the four seasons. Most often these comprise a set of screens on…

A mandala produced for a specific ceremony or ritual use. Lit. "*mandara 曼荼羅…

Also called sara-ita 皿板. A sole plate. A flat level board placed on floor boards to form a base to erect posts or…

Also *ushibari 牛梁, nakahikibari 中引梁, ushihikibari 牛引梁, …

Also written 色代の間. A room or building that projects from (or adjacent and linked by galleries to) the rear of the main…

Also written 色代.

1　A low broad step or platform of timber, which had become a standard feature of the…

1　Also written 甃. Also called *shikihiragawara 敷平瓦, shikihira…

A wall plate. A beam placed on top of a wall. It supports the ends of transverse beams *…

Also nokishikigawara 軒敷瓦. An under-tile. A broad, concave tile laid underneath a broad concave eave-end pendant…

Also formerly called shikimi 閾; also called shiki 敷, shikiri しきり or shikige しきげ. A…

Also called *koshikake 腰掛.
A bench joint. A flat surface in…

The bulging sphere which is below the lotus petals *renben 蓮弁 in the narrow…

The transfer of a deity, goshintai 御神体, from a permanent building to a temporary one *…

Also called nijū chigaidana 二重違い棚. Double staggered shelves of the shoin style *…

Lit. "partition gate." A gate that partitions or closes off one area from another. Two examples of partition gates are found…

Dyes and pigments. A collective name for all insoluble pigments *ganryō 顔料 and…

Thick colored square sheets of paper used for calligraphic poems or paintings. During the mid-Heian and Kamakura periods,…

Also called kakuban 角判. Lit. "poem card format." A size of *ukiyo-e…

Colored, square-shaped paper inscribed with verses, then cut and pasted onto the upper portion of large screens and sliding…

Lit. "poetry paper windows." *Shikishi 色紙 refers to the square paper on which short poems…

Lime plaster used to coat walls, ceilings and earth floors *doma 土間. The word…

Paintings produced for general sale rather than upon the specific request of a patron. These works are therefore comparable…

A purple dye senryō 染料 made from the roots of the perennial plant Gromwell (Lithospermum erythrorhizon…

1　A generic term for a roof line that has a broken plane, the parts of which run in the same direction. A…

A pent-roof addition to a main building whose roof is at a lower level than main roof.

Also called shikoroyane 錣屋根. A method of constructing a hip-and-gable roof on separate planes. The gable is…

Ch: sijunzi. Lit. "four gentlemen." A Chinese flower-painting theme that features depictions of plum ume 梅…

Also an old name read yotsuashimon and sometimes written 四足門; also called ikken-ikkomon 一間一戸門. A four-…

Lit. "arrangement of branch and leg stones." One way to arrange the five types of trump stones known as *…

1　The secondary or collateral lintel placed against the underside of the top lintel *…

An expression used to refer to any entrance gate at a Shinto shrine *torii 鳥居…

A stain on paper or silk. Generally caused by moisture or mold. The result is a discolored or brownish spot on the surface…

A gate located opposite the Shimizu 清水 moat (rebuilt 1658 ) at Edo-jō 江戸城, constructed in the *…

The lowest story of a two or more storied structure.

A toilet for servants. The toilet used by the elite or by the master in merchants housing was called jōchōzu 上手水.…

Lit. "lower kitchen."

1　The outermost part of the kitchen that functioned as a service zone in the…

Also called shimozan 下桟. The bottom piece on paneled doors *karado 唐戸…

1　A room in the front *shimote 下手 corner of the earth-floored…

Also koshinageshi 腰長押.

1　A non-penetrating tie beam *…

Also pronounced getai. The lower, flat or slanted part of the rim on a broad, concave eave-end tile *…

Lit. "lower hand." A position or seat of lower rank, or comparatively inferior position in a hierarchy. In traditional…

One of the residences granted to daimyō 大名 by the Edo government, as part of the system where feudal lords…

1　The seat of lowest status in a reception room *zashiki 座敷.…

Also *miei 御影, *eizō 影像…

Grades of formality in the method of preparing tea temae 点前. The terms originate in the three styles of…

Also called shin-no-hashira 心の柱, imibashira 忌柱 or 斎柱, or shin-no-mihashira 真の御柱. Non-structural,…

A garden fence with penetrating ties *nuki 貫 that run horizontally from one…

Also written 真. The center, core, heart, or pith of a log, pillar or wall. When expressing a distance from one pillar center…

A grouping of three stones, carefully balanced to resemble the character shina 品. The stone arrangement is…

Also written 真柱; called satsu 擦 or 刹. Lit. "heart pillar." The central pillar or shaft that forms the axis of a…

Centering. The center point of a line on a wooden structural member, as for example a pillar *…

A style of aristocratic mansions completed in the mid-10th century in the capital Kyoto, Heian-kyō 平安京. One of the main…

Lit. "new hall." Several of Japan's temple complexes include a building known as shindō. One of the most famous is…

1　A purlin that is placed directly across the tops of pillars *hashira…

A wooden core, used inside a clay or lacquer statue, or when casting a metal statue. It served as a support or as an aid to…

Lit. "eight patriarchs of the Shingon sect." The founders of Esoteric Buddism mikkyō 密教. These mythical and…

Also called Shingondō 真言堂, Shūhōin 修法院 or Mandara dōjō 曼荼羅道場. Lit. "the mantra hall." A hall…

Also tsuizen-e 追善絵. Buddhist memorial pictures. In the 19th century, obituary pictures were printed and sold to…

An alternative term for *nema 寝間. Also called nedokoro, nedoko…

A traditional Japanese method of constructing a plastered wall. The framing for the wall is set between pillars that remain…

A Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing a vengeful ghost, similar to *…

Lit. "true view pictures." A type of landscape painting based on naturalistic depiction of a particular place. The term…

Lit. "body light." The light believed to be emitted from the body of Buddha. Expressed on Buddha and bodhisattva figures in…

A special stable to house the sacred horse offered to a shrine by the imperial family or a nobleman. The most famous is that…

Also futabashira torii 二柱鳥居. A generic name for a Shinto gate *torii…

An ancient style of Shinto shrine architecture used especially for the main sanctuary *…

A square beam that has a lengthwise section cut out of it. The cut reaches the center of the log and is made to prevent…

Lit. "deity gate." Any type of gate found at a shrine, excluding the gate-like entrance to the sacred ground of a Shinto…

Abbreviation of Shinnō hajinraku 秦王破陣楽 (Victorious Dance of King Shin), also known as Shinkō hajinraku 神功破陣楽. A *…

Ch: Shennong. The second of the legendary Three Emperors (Ch: sanhuang, Jp: sankō 三皇) credited…