| Title | Contains Image(s) | Description | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|
| yasaka-zukuri 八坂造 | Also *yasaka-zukuri 祇園造. A style of shrine architecture which began in the… |
Architecture, Shrines | |
| yase-onna 痩女 | A Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing the suffering spirit of a woman who dies from… |
Art History, Sculpture | |
| yase-otoko 痩男 | Emaciated man. Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing a ghost suffering in hell. Lean… |
Art History, Sculpture | |
| yasha 夜叉 | Also yakusha 薬叉 (Sk: yaksa), a class of semi-divine beings usually considered to be of a benevolent and… |
Art History, Iconography | |
| yashabushi やしゃぶし | Also written 夜叉付子. A brown vegetable dye senryō 染料 made from the alder tree (Alnus firma), which… |
Art History, Painting | |
| Yashamon 夜叉門 | ✓ | An eight-legged gate *hakkyakumon 八脚門 (1653) located at Rinnōji Taiyūin… |
Architecture, Gates |
| yashikijiro 屋敷城 | A small castle or fortification built like a a country house or mansion yashiki 屋敷. In the middle ages, it usually… |
Architecture, Castles | |
| yashikimon 屋敷門 | ✓ | 1 The front gate of a warrior's manor house. 2 A gate, now called Kyū tōjin… |
Architecture, Gates |
| Yashima kassen 屋島合戦 | A pictorial subject depicting scenes from the Battle at Yashima, an important engagement in the Genpei Battles Genpei… |
Art History, Painting | |
| yashiro 社 | 1 A Shinto shrine. 2 In very ancient times before permanent buildings were erected… |
Architecture, Shrines | |
| yasuri 鑢 | U-shaped metal pieces nailed to a gate, allowing it to be locked with a sliding timber gate-bar *… |
Architecture, Tools | |
| yatoi-ari 雇蟻 | A right-angled joint with a dovetail spline tenon *hozo ほぞ that resembles a… |
Architecture, Joints | |
| yatoihozo 雇ほぞ | Also called sashiki 差木, yatoiki 雇木, or machihozo 待ほぞ. 1 A spline tenon. A… |
Architecture, Joints | |
| yatsu 八つ | Lit. "the character eight 八 yatsu." The practice of propping three or four posts around a newly replanted tree. The… |
Architecture, Gardens | |
| yatsuhashi 八橋 | ✓ | 1 Lit. "eight bridges." A type of low bridge built over a shallow pond or marsh using wooden planks without… |
Architecture, Art History, Painting |
| yatsumune-zukuri 八棟造 | ✓ | Lit. "eight-ridge construction." A complicated roof style with multiple ridges and bargeboards, or large vernacular house… |
Architecture, General Terms |
| yatsushi torikabuto 省鳥兜 | A type of decorated beam *kibana 木鼻 which is a simplified version of Japanese… |
Architecture, Decorations | |
| yawari 矢割 | A method of stone-splitting achieved by boring a hole in the stone. A wedge *kusabi… |
Architecture, General Terms | |
| Yayoi jidai 弥生時代 | The Yayoi period (ca. 400 BCE to 250 CE). The period is marked by the establishment of rice cultivation and an agrarian… |
Art History, General Terms | |
| yazama 矢狭間 | An arrow loophole in a castle wall. Also sengan 箭眼. Characterized by a vertical opening about 45 cm high (1 … |
Architecture, Castles | |
| yō no koguchi 陽の虎口 | Positive castle entrance or yang entrance. A generic term for various types of castle entrance *… |
Architecture, Castles | |
| yō 様 | A suffix. When used in architectural history, it means a technical style, as in *… |
Architecture, General Terms | |
| yobikogata chōzubachi 呼子形手水鉢 | Lit. "whistle shape." A type of water basin *chōzubachi 手水鉢 which resembles… |
Architecture, Gardens | |
| yodo 淀 | ✓ | Also yodogi 淀木 or yodonuki 淀貫. Tapered horizontal timber, 12-15 cm wide and 4.5 cm thick, placed on top of… |
Architecture, General Terms |
| yōfūga 洋風画 | Western-influenced paintings and prints produced in Japan before the Meiji period, including *… |
Art History, Painting | |
| yōga 洋画 | Western-style painting produced during the Meiji period. Yōga employed the use of western materials such as oil… |
Art History, Painting | |
| yōgai 要害 | Also written 用害. 1 A place of strategic importance, having steep terrain that is easy to defend. In… |
Architecture, Castles | |
| yogan-in 与願印 | Lit. "wish-granting mudra (Sk: varada mudra)"; also segan-in 施願印. A mudra or hand gesture *… |
Art History, Sculpture | |
| yōhaiden 遥拝殿 | In ancient times called fukukai 伏拝; ippukuhai 一伏拝. The worship of a god that is enshrined at a distant… |
Architecture, Shrines | |
| yohaku 余白 | A blank, unpainted space. It is considered one of the identifying characteristics of both Chinese and Japanese painting.… |
Art History, Painting | |
| yōji-bashira 楊子柱 | Also called nuritate bashira 塗立柱, nuridashi bashira 塗出柱 or yanagi bashira 柳柱. A corner pillar in… |
Architecture, Tea Houses | |
| yōjigane 楊枝鉄 | Also called chikara gane 力鉄 or kanehōzu-e 鉄方杖. |
Architecture, General Terms | |
| yojōhan 四畳半 | ✓ | A four and a half 4 1/2 mat tea ceremony room *chashitsu 茶室, the most common… |
Architecture, Tea Houses |
| yojōhangiri 四畳半切 | Lit. "four mats and a half cut." A firebox or hearth used in a 4 1/2 mat or larger tea ceremony room *… |
Architecture, Tea Houses | |
| yōkai-e 妖怪絵 | Also bakemono-e 化物絵 and yūrei-e 幽霊絵. *Ukiyo-e 浮世絵 prints that depict… |
Art History, Painting | |
| Yōkihi 楊貴妃 | Ch: Yang Guifei (719-56). The famous Chinese beauty and concubine of Emperor Xuanzong (Jp: *… |
Art History, Painting | |
| yoko-ita 横板 | 1 Horizontal, parallel boards with a wood grain that runs sideways. In shrine architecture *… |
Architecture, General Terms | |
| yōkō 洋紅 | Carmine, a crimson pigment. An alkaline organometallic compound, taken from the female cochineal insect which lives on… |
Art History, Painting | |
| yokobikinoko 横挽鋸 | Also read yokobiki nokogiri. A crosscut saw. A saw used for cutting wood across the grain. | Architecture, Tools | |
| yokobori 横堀 | A lateral dry moat excavated crosswise in front of a mountain castle *yamajiro… |
Architecture, Castles | |
| yokobue 横笛 | ✓ | A pictorial subject based on "The Flute," Yokobue, Chapter 37 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale of… |
Art History, Painting |
| yokogi 横木 | Also hikigi 引木 Lit. "horizontal timber." Although the term yokogi can refer to any horizontal timber, it… |
Architecture, Tea Houses | |
| yokohaiden 横拝殿 | ✓ | A long, rectangular worship hall at a Shinto shrine with entrances on the front and rear sides parallel to the ridge. The… |
Architecture, Shrines |
| Yokohama-e 横浜絵 | Also Yokohama 横浜 *ukiyo-e 浮世絵. Late ukiyo-e prints which depicted foreigners at the port… |
Art History, Painting | |
| yokome-ita 横目板 | Also called *oshibuchi 押縁. Narrow, thin battens placed horizontally over… |
Architecture, General Terms | |
| yokosama 横狭間 | A side loophole of the *yarisama 鑓狭間 type for pike and spears. Typically… |
Architecture, Castles | |
| yokoshigezan 横繁桟 | ✓ | Closely spaced horizontal crosspieces commonly found on latticed doors *mairado… |
Architecture, General Terms |
| yokoshino 横篠 | ✓ | 1 The horizontal line of a bamboo joint. |
Architecture, General Terms |
| yokoya 横矢 | Lit. "side arrow." |
Architecture, Castles | |
| yokoya hizumi 横矢邪 | Also written 横矢斜 and 横矢歪. Lit. "distorted rampart." A diagonal projection from a castle rampart. Used by defending troops to… |
Architecture, Castles | |
| yokoya masugata 横矢桝形 | Also termed demasugata 出桝形. A defensive box-shaped courtyard *masugata… |
Architecture, Castles | |
| yokoya sumi-otoshi 横矢角落 | ✓ | Also written 横矢隅落. A diagonally cut-away corner of a castle tower, used to launch side attacks *… |
Architecture, Castles |
| yokoza 横座 | 1 The seat of the principal and most honored guest sonsha 尊者 at formal banquets in the shinden… |
Architecture, Aristocratic Dwellings, Folk Dwellings | |
| yokozan 横桟 | ✓ | Also called nakazan 中桟. A generic term for the parallel crosspieces used to frame doors, windows, and other… |
Architecture, General Terms |
| yokozando 横桟戸 | ✓ | A timber door frame into which horizontal boards are set. The seams tsugime 継目 are hidden by crosspieces nailed in… |
Architecture, General Terms |
| yokurō 翼廊 | ✓ | Lit. "wing corridors." A corridor that extends outward from the side or rear of a building. Examples: Byōdōin *… |
Architecture, Buildings, Structures |
| Yōmeimon 陽明門 | ✓ | Lit. "sun bright gate." |
Architecture, Gates |
| yomezuka 嫁束 | Also called *kirizuka 切束, komitatara 込たたら. A short strut… |
Architecture, General Terms | |
| yomihon 読本 | Lit. "reading books." An Edo period woodblock printed novel prevalent from the mid to late Edo period that focused on… |
Art History, Painting | |
| Yomogiu 蓬生 | ✓ | A pictorial subject based on "The Wormwood Patch" Yomogiu, Chapter 15 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The… |
Art History, Painting |
| yonkyoku byōbu 四曲屏風 | Also yomaiori byōbu 四枚折屏風. A folding screen with four panels. Before the 12th or 13th century, this type of screen… |
Art History, Painting | |
| yonmaihozo 四枚ほぞ | ✓ | The four tenons cut into the crosscut of a beam. Quadruple tenons. The same principle is used in making double tenons *… | Architecture, Joints |
| yōraku 瓔珞 | 1 A string of beads or lacework used to decorate Buddhist statues and objects. Often found on Bodhisattva… |
Art History, Sculpture, Architecture, Decorations | |
| yorikimado 与力窓 | ✓ | 1 A rectangular window used in exterior walls, fitted with thick horizontal timber bars *… |
Architecture, Aristocratic Dwellings, Folk Dwellings |
| yorimasa 頼政 | A Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing a 12th-century warrior-poet of the Seiwa Genji… |
Art History, Sculpture | |
| yoritsuki 寄付 | Also written 寄附. |
Architecture, Folk Dwellings, Tea Houses | |
| yoroboshi 弱法師 | Priest with faltering step. A Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing a blind young boy… |
Art History, Sculpture | |
| yoroido 鎧戸 | Also called gararido がらり戸. The horizontal, louver boards yoroi-ita 鎧板 of a door that run parallel to each… |
Architecture, General Terms | |
| Yōryū Kannon 楊柳観音 | Also called Yakuō Kannon 薬王観音. Lit. "Willow Kannon" or "*Kannon 観音 with a willow branch… |
Art History, Iconography | |
| yose-ari hikidokko 寄蟻引独鈷 | A right angle joint used to attach a horizontal member to a pillar. It combines a type of dovetail joint *… |
Architecture, Joints | |
| yose-ari 寄蟻 | Also called okuri-ari 送蟻. A right angle joint *shiguchi 仕口 used to… |
Architecture, Joints | |
| yose-ishijiki 寄石敷 | Stone paving in which various sizes of cut and natural stones are arranged in unique patterns. Different sizes of regular… |
Architecture, Tea Houses | |
| yosegi 寄木 | 1 The upper horizontal timber yosegi 寄木, in a transom, called *… |
Architecture, General Terms | |
| yosejikii 寄敷居 | ✓ | Also called *tatamiyose 畳寄, or abbreviated to yose 寄. A horizontal timber level with… | Architecture, General Terms |
| yosekake 寄掛 | A board fence erected to protect the exterior plastered walls of a storehouse *dozō… |
Architecture, Storehouses | |
| yosekakebashira 寄掛柱 | A post set against a castle's sloping stone wall, at the same angle of incline, under the watch tower gate *… |
Architecture, Castles | |
| yoseki-zukuri 寄木造 | Also read yosegi zukuri. Formerly called kiyose zukuri 木寄造 or yoseai zukuri 寄合造. Antomym of *… |
Art History, Sculpture | |
| yosemune yane 寄棟屋根 | ✓ | Also abbreviated to yosemune 寄棟, also called yotsuyane 四つ屋根. A hipped roof. A roof that descends from the… |
Architecture, General Terms |
| yosemune-zukuri 寄棟造 | Also called *shia 四阿 in the Nara period. Also komune-zukuri 小棟造, … |
Architecture, General Terms | |
| yoshido 葭戸 | A sliding door or screen filled with reeds yoshi 葭 or ashi 葦, sometimes called match stick blinds, to admit summer… | Architecture, General Terms | |
| yoshigaki 葭垣 | Also ashigaki 葦垣. Also called yoshizubei 葭簀塀 or yoshizugaki 葭簀垣. A fence made of ditch reed … |
Architecture, General Terms | |
| Yoshino jidai 吉野時代 | The Yoshino period. A seldom-used, rather old-fashioned term for the Southern and Northern Courts period *… |
Art History, General Terms | |
| Yoshino 吉野 | An area in Mt. Ōmine 大峰, Nara, most famous for cherry blossoms. Important not only as a place of great scenic beauty, but… |
Art History, Painting | |
| Yoshino mandara 吉野曼茶羅 | Devotional paintings of the deities and landscape of Mt. *Yoshino 吉野. Yoshino… |
Art History, Iconography | |
| Yoshitsune 義経 | The tragic warrior Minamoto no Yoshitsune 源義経 (1159-89), whose many exploits both real and legendary are recounted in… |
Art History, Painting | |
| Yoshiwara 吉原 | The licensed pleasure and prostitution quarter of Edo. First established in 1617 near Nihonbashi 日本橋 by Shōji Jin'emon… |
Art History, Painting | |
| yotesaki tokyō 四手先斗きょう | A 4-stepped bracket complex found mainly on the upper part of a *tahōtō 多宝塔.… |
Architecture, General Terms | |
| yotsudate 四つ建て | Also *yoritsuki 寄付. A structural system found in farmhouses, nōka 農家, of the Edo… |
Architecture, Folk Dwellings | |
| yotsumegaki 四目垣 | ✓ | Lit. "four-eyed fence." A generic name for a bamboo lattice fence. The poetic name derives from the quadrant of lozenge… |
Architecture, Gardens |
| yotsutome 四留 | Also pronounced yotsudome. An angled joint *shiguchi 仕口, composed of… |
Architecture, Joints | |
| yotsuwaribishi 四割菱 | ✓ | Also waribishi 割菱, takedabishi 武田菱. A decorative pattern that consists of a diamond shape divided into four smaller… | Art History, Painting |
| Yotsuya kaidan 四谷怪談 | A pictorial subject in *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 taken from the popular *… |
Art History, Painting | |
| yotsuya maruta 四谷丸太 | Also called yotsuya migaki maruta 四谷磨き丸太 or migaki maruta 磨き丸太. A cedar log stripped of its bark and then… |
Architecture, General Terms | |
| yu-engata 油煙形 | ✓ | Also kōmorigata 蝙蝠形. A decorative pattern similar to the shapes found on a foliate-panel, shape *… |
Architecture, Decorations |
| yugamibashira 歪柱 | Also called *magaribashira 曲柱. Lit. "crooked or bent post." Posts that… |
Architecture, Tea Houses | |
| Yūgao 夕顔 | ✓ | A pictorial subject taken from "Evening Faces" Yūgao, Chapter 4 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale of… |
Art History, Painting |
| yūgen 幽玄 | Lit. "profound mystery." A multivalent and influential medieval aesthetic ideal expressing darkness, depth, mystery,… |
Art History, General Terms | |
| yūgeza 遊戯坐 | ✓ | Also read yūgiza (Sk: lalitasana). A seated position for a Buddhist image, usually a bodhisattva *… |
Art History, Sculpture |
| Yūgiri 夕霧 | ✓ | A pictorial subject taken from the "Evening Mist" Yuugiri, Chapter 39 of Genji monogarari 源氏物語 (The… |
Art History, Painting |
| yūgiridana 夕霧棚 | An arrangement of three staggered shelves in the upper half of the recess *tokowaki… |
Architecture, Aristocratic Dwellings |
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