Entasis. The bulge in the center of a circular pillar to make it appear straight. In Japan, circular pillars called *…

1　Lit. earthen bridge. An earthen bridge, which is made by leaving an unexcavated section of moat in front…

Also read tsuchibei. Also called *tsuiji 築地. An earthen wall or…

The movable face plate. The most elaborate gimmick used on the bugaku mask, *…

Lit. body carving. The carver of woodblocks for *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 prints who was…

A title of artistic or cultural advisors in the Ashikaga 足利 shogunate, established about the time of Yosimitsu 義満 (1358-1408…

1a.) Furring strips made of thin wood or bamboo that are nailed horizontally to posts to form the base for…

A sill, ground sill, or footplate. Generally the heavy timber members laid horizontally at the base of a wooden building…

Also called tsuchidomesan. Narrow timber strips nailed horizontally to roof sheathing, *…

A man's hip-length jacket, generally worn over other clothing or armor by high-ranking samurai 侍 from the late…

Rotating eyes, a gimmick used for many bugaku masks, *bugakumen 舞楽面…

Lit. implement mat. The straw mat, *tatami 畳, on which the host sits when he…

Also dorui 土塁. An earthen embankment, earthwork, or rampart. A defensive embankment surrounding a castle or a…

1　Generally a base for tile roofing, *kawarabuki 瓦葺. A…

The foundation bed, shiki 敷, of an earthen embankment, *doi 土居. It has…

The process of spreading clay on the prepared surface of a roof in order to lay roof tiles, *…

Lit. child, young boy.

1　A boy between 8 and 20 years old living in a Buddhist temple. He studies…

A variety of *besson mandara 別尊曼荼羅 (a form of mandara centered…

The decorated 'belts' around the upper, middle, and lower circumference of the stem, sao 竿, of a lantern.

Lit. guardian boy's stones. Two symbolic garden stones (see *yakuishi 役石）…

A temple of the Tendai 天台 sect in Hidaka 日高, Wakayama Prefecture. The setting of a dramatic old Japanese tale first recorded…

Also called hikidokko 引独鈷; hikidokko ari 引独鈷蟻. One type of *…

Also written 洞戸, 道幸, 道古, 堂庫、or 道籠. A storage space for utensils used for the tea ceremony. The earliest type was probably a…

Lit. independent donjon or keep. Also called dokuritsushiki tenshu 独立式天守, dokuritsu tenshukaku 独立天守閣. A…

Independent post. An internal freestanding post, *hashira 柱, not attached to…

Lit. Daoist-style gardens. A general term designating gardens which incorporated Chinese Daoist ideas or motifs. The Daoist…

1　Alternatively called *niwa 庭 or dōji どうじ. An area…

Decorative drapery used on statues in the Kamakura region from the late Kamakura period. The drapery was made in clay relief…

Also written 純子. Patterned damask weave. A thick and glossy silk variety of shusu 繻子 (satin), with the design made…

Any painting produced with a type of thick, opaque paint made from inexpensive pigment and the white pigment, *…

A technique where a mixture of animal glue, *nikawa 膠, and powdered burnt clay…

Also 礬沙, 陶砂. Sizing. Dōsa is made by dissolving animal glue, *nikawa 膠…

Also written dōzuri 胴摺. The widest horizontal stile in the door of *heijūmon…

Lit. Daoist Buddhist paintings. A genre of painting on Daoist (Taoist; Jp: Dōkyō 道教) and Buddhist (shaku 釈 from *…

Also Sae-no-kami 塞の神 (also read Sai-no-kami), Dōrokujin 道陸神, and other less common names. A folk deity associated with roads…

1　The flat top of an embankment, *doi 土居, also called *…

Also called tsuchi-no-tō 土の塔 or dantō 段塔. Lit. earthen pagoda. Dantō means stepped pagoda. A…

Also read dodome-ita, and called *seki-ita 堰板. The sheathing boards…

Lit. saw with attached spine. A tenon or back saw. A saw designed especially to cut the shoulder of a tenon. The blade is…

1　A type of floor found in vernacular houses, *minka 民家, used…

A large, heavy horizontal timber attached to the tops of posts, *hashira 柱,…

Bronze work. Bronze casting has been very important in Japan since ancient times, and was used for Yayoi period dōtaku…

A form of storehouse which provided a fireproof place to keep valuables which were otherwise always at risk in highly…

Also referred to as *kura-zukuri 蔵造. A fireproof building construction…

The framework for a mud-plastered wall. It consists of lath, bamboo crosspieces *…

A wall alcove. An alcove that has no recessed space and no appurtenances such as a framing board *…

A generic term for shrine fences *tamagaki 玉垣. A fence built at shrines from…

Also written 壁木舞. Thinly split lath set vertically and horizontally to form the framework *…

Small diameter posts set between two pillars to support horizontal circular laths called kabemawatashi 壁間渡. The…

The band of lotus petals *renji 蓮子 which encircles the seed pod *…

A type of curtain hung from the upper non-penetrating tie beam, uwanageshi (or kaminageshi ) 上長押 in temple…

Lit. walled bridge corridor. An archaic term for a type of corridor that connects two buildings in a Heian period…

Also shibai-e 芝居絵 and geki-e 劇画. Includes kabuki gekijō zu 歌舞伎劇場図 and *…

The most popular form of theatre among townspeople in Japan since the early Edo period. The form has its origins in the…

Also 衡木. A horizontal timber, lintel, or crossbar.

1　A lintel characteristic of gates called *…

The eighteen *kabuki 歌舞伎 plays selected as best by Ichikawa Danjūrō 7 七代市川団十郎…

Pictures of *kabuki 歌舞伎. In the broad sense of the term, kabuki zu…

Also written kōmon 衡門. A roofless gate composed of two square gate posts *…

Lit. stump. The term is used to designate trees which have no trunk but grow so that the branches come directly out of the…

Lit. turnip bargeboard pendant. A gable pendant *gegyo 懸魚 decorated with…

Also written as 兜. A helmet, usually made of iron. The earliest Japanese helmets were made in the Kofun period. There were…

Lit. helmet gate. A type of front gate in tea gardens *roji 露地 that resembles a…

Lit. bird-and-flower painting. Paintings of birds and flowers, flowers only *kakiga…

A short strut used at the corners of podii *kidan 基壇, or a dais *…

Also ka'enkō 火焔光. Lit. flame nimbus. A halo *kōhai 光背 on a…

1　Lotus petal design carved around the lower base kiban 基盤 of a lantern *…

Abbreviated to *kaeribana 反花. Also soribana 反り花. A…

Also called sakaguma 反隈 (or 逆隈) or teriguma 照隈. Lit. highlighting. Reverse shading. A shading *…

Frog-leg strut. A strut with legs spread like those of a frog. Kaerumata in the early Nara period developed from an…

Lit. mirror stone.

1　A stone which is placed behind a hand wash basin *…

Boards or panels planed to a perfectly smooth surface and employed for ceilings or flooring. An example is a thin board…

Lit. mirror room. A room separated by a curtain from the passageway hashigakari 橋掛り leading to a noh stage *…

Also kagamiita tenjō 鏡板天井. Lit. mirror ceiling. A flat ceiling made of smoothly planed boards shiraki…

Lit. mirror piling. A method of masonry used for a stone wall *ishigaki 石垣.…

A pictorial subject based on the "Flares" Kagaribi, Chapter 27 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale of Genji…

Guardhouses for soldiers placed at street corners in Kyoto and Kamakura during the Kamakura period. The earliest known …

A festoon. Also fesutun フェストゥーン, hanazuna sōshoku 花網装飾, or sagewa kazari 下げ環飾. A carved or molded…

1　A pictorial subject taken from one of the eighteen great kabuki plays *…

A plastered roof ornament on storehouses *dozō 土蔵. Located at the ends of…

A pictorial subject taken from "The Drake Fly" Kagerō (also translated as Dayfly or Mayfly), Chapter 52 of G…

Lit. key-shaped house. A widely used term for vernacular houses *minka 民家, of…

Purfled work. Lit. basket carving. A type of decorative wood carving used on beam projections *…

Floor or storey, and also a counter for floors in a building. For example, nikai 二階 refers to the second floor or…

Lit. shell mouth joint. A straight end-to-end joint *tsugite 継手 used for very…

Also called kaio'oi 貝覆. A shell-matching game played originally by nobles in the Heian period. A half clam shell…

A ceremony where a Buddhist image not normally on view is unveiled to all worshippers. Normally carried out during a…

A Tendai 天台 sect building that contains an ordination platform used exclusively for the ceremony to impart the Buddhist…

One or more steps composed of a tread dan ita 段板 or fumi ita 踏板 and a riser *…

Ch: jiehua. Lit. boundary painting. Both a painting technique and a painting genre in China. As a technical term,…

1　A trapezoid.

2　Also called *tsuiji…

Also kaigashira gegyo 貝頭懸魚. Lit. shell-head gable pendant. A type of decorative gable pendant *…

Also abbreviated to kaigen or kaigan 開眼, jugan, or jugen 入眼. Lit. eye-opening ceremony.…

Kaigetsudō school. A school of *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 artists in early 18th century who…

A school of painters active from the 16th century to the 19th century founded by Kaihō Yūshō 海北友松 (1533-1615) and passed…

Lit. Humble Words on Matters of Painting, a late 18th century polemic on painting theory by Kuwayama Gyokushū 桑山玉洲 (1746-99…

The words and deeds of court-noble Konoe Iehiro 近衛家熈 (1667-1736) as collected by his personal physician Yamashina Dōan 山科道安…

Also kaikō ana 開口穴; kaikōbu 開口部. A generic term for an opening made in a wall for a door and window, in…