Also written 面板. The flat faces of a board. The flat faces of the boards between the narrow horizontal strips *…

Also read as tsura, which means the surface or face of a structural member.

1　The chamfer…

Possibly a corruption of medo 目処. A gap between two things. A board used to cover or fill a gap is called mendo…

Filler or gap-fill tiles used to close or plug the openings along the base of the main ridge *…

Also menkawa 面皮. A pillar or post *hashira 柱, rafter *…

The curved base of a bearing block.

The general term for the relationship between the *tatami 畳 mat binding and…

Also pronounced mendori. The chamfered or beveled edge of a pillar, post, piece of furniture, piece of latticework…

A square post or pillar with chamfered corners.

A special plane used to cut bevelled corners. A shooting board, that serves as a guide, is attached to a small smoothing…

Also mendō 眠堂. Sleeping quarters for the head priest behind the main room at a subsidiary Zen temple *…

Lit. "husband and wife windows"; double windows. A type of window used in a tea ceremony house *…

Ch: Malangfu. One of 33 manifestations of *Kannon 観音 (Sk:…

A type of bamboo-ear gate takehogaki 竹穂垣 used for projecting fences *sodegaki…

The meeting of two structural elements that butt together. Examples include sliding doors *…

Lit. "eye-gap door." A simple informal door that is composed of horizontal lattice yokogōshi 横格子 set fairly widely…

Lit. "eye-fastening post." Also mitsukibashira 見付柱; sumibashira 隅柱. A guide post. The corner post at the…

Also keshō-ita 化粧板. A flat, sheathing board attached to the underside of the eaves of a wooden dwelling. The…

A ceiling plan drawn exactly in relation to the floor plan, i.e., viewed as if a person were lying on his back looking…

Also written 御舎. The emperor's palace or dwellings of the upper class in the proto-historic and early historic periods. The…

A type of halo *kōhai 光背 found on Buddhist images. A square…

Also mida jōin. Lit. "Amida's meditation mudra." Mida is an abbreviation of *…

1　Another name for a temple called Hōjōji 法成寺, built at the end of the tenth to beginning of the 11th…

Lit. "hidden from sight."

1　A structural member, part of which is not visible because it is inserted…

Also *eizō 影像 or *shin-ei…

Lit. "image hall." Also called eidō 影堂, goeidō or goedō 御影堂. A temple hall explicitly assigned to…

Lit. "polished stone." A vague term which means any stone which is highly finished or polished, but may also refer to the…

The term for steps constructed at the center front of two important imperial palace buildings in Kyoto Gosho 京都御所, the…

Also read mitsubashira torii or called sankakutorii 三角鳥居. A gate-like structure *…

A style of architecture found at Miho Jinja 美保神社 in Shimane Prefecture. Two shrine buildings in the taisha style *…

Lit. "Amida looking back." An image of a standing *raigō-in Amida 来迎印阿弥陀…

1　A surface of a Japanese architectural component that faces front.

2　Endpaper,…

A generic name for granite kakōgan 花崗岩, the term originally meant granite quarried in the Mikage 御影 district in the…

Also mikawa 御溝. Ditches surrounding each building in the Imperial Palace. The present palace, Kyoto Gosho 京都御所, has…

Lit. "crescent: three moons." Noh masks *nōmen 能面 representing a…

Also pronounced mikedono. A daily offering hall at a shrine. The most important example is in the northeast corner…

Lit. "forehead light." A curl of white hair on the forehead of a Buddha or Bodhisattva. It is said to emit a bright light…

A type of mounting for a hanging scroll *kakemono 掛物. In this mounting, the…

The art of Esoteric Buddhism mikkyō 密教. Esoteric Buddhism was introduced to Japan from China in the 8th…

Utensils used during ritual incantation and prayer in Esoteric Buddhism mikkyō 密教. Introduced to Japan in the…

Also called Komori Myōjin 子守明神 and may appear in the triad known as Mikomori Sannyoshin 御子守三女神 (see below). The deity of…

Also read shin'yo. Also written 御輿. A palanquin used to transport Shinto deities. A mikoshi was believed…

Also written 神輿宿. Also mikoshigura 神輿倉, or shin'yoko 神輿庫. A storehouse for a portable shrine *…

Also pronounced mikuriya. A building or kitchen where food and drink are prepared to offer to the gods. For…

Lit. "ear stone." Also called sode-ishi 袖石, tsuma-ishi 妻石. Stone string or stringer. Stones placed…

Also called miminuki 耳貫, *enmimi-ita 縁耳板. A finishing board…

A gate located south of the santuary Honden 本殿 at Kibitsu Jinja 吉備津神社 in Okayama prefecture. Images of two defied loyal…

The gates on the south side of Ise Jingū 伊勢神宮. They are large eight-legged gates *…

Also read minatoshi. Paper pasted from the edge of *tatami 畳 to at…

A type of mounting for a hanging scroll *kakemono 掛物. A …

1　A dialect variant of *mizuya 水屋, used in the Edo period to designate an…

A general term for vernacular dwellings of the ancient, medieval, or premodern periods, or rebuilt in the style of the…

Also written 蓑建仁寺垣. Also called takehogaki 竹穂垣. A variation of the bamboo fence *…

Also read minoshi. Lit. "mino paper." A generic term for handmade paper *…

Also called sanjūnoki 三重軒. Lit. "three eaves." An arrangement of three sets of rafters that support the eaves. The…

A drooping verge needed on buildings with gable style *kirizuma-zukuri…

Roof tiles that are placed along the drooping verges; that is, tiles that extend beyond edges of the gables.

A thick, penetrating tie beam about 6 cm wide used to reinforce the doors of storehouses *…

A pictorial subject based on "Minori" ("The Rites" or "The Venerable Law"), Chapter 40 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (…

Mino 美濃 ware. A general name for ceramic wares made in the town of Tajimi 多治見 in old Mino Province (now the south-eastern…

A decorative strut which is shaped like a plectrum used for playing the shamisen 三味線. The strut is capped with a…

Chinese painting of the Ming (Jp: Min 明) and Qing (Jp: Shin 清) dynasties. The term, used primarily in distinction to *…

A pictorial subject based on "Miotsukushi" ("Channel Buoys"), Chapter 14 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale of…

Also Jishi 慈氏, lit. "compassionate one" (Sk. Maitreya). A bodhisattva *bosatsu…

A Buddhist hall dedicated to *Miroku 弥勒 (Sk: Maitreya), the compassionate bodhisattva of…

Also written 水松色.

1　Olive color. A color name used in dyeing, produced by…

Also pronounced tana.

1　Abbreviation of *misedana 見世棚.
…

Also written 店棚.

1　A small-scale shop in the mediaeval period. Known from the late Heian…

Also written 店棚造. Also dashimise-zukuri 出し店造. A very small shrine building, one bay wide, within the precincts of a…

The front part of the earthen-floored area *doma 土間, in urban vernacular…

A shop constructed using the fireproof system of construction known as *dozō-zukuri…

Pictures depicting shows of acrobatics, jugglers, magic tricks and curious animals which were produced with intent to…

The space outside the front part of the earthern-floored area *doma 土間 of…

Lit. "beyond the shop." A term used most commonly in the Kinai 畿内 district and Kii 紀伊 (Wakayama Prefecture), during the Edo…

A term whose definition falls under three headings. The first refers to representations of specific Shinto deities, often in…

An incantation in esoteric Buddhism to purify and sanctify *misogi 御衣木, the wood used for…

Ablutions performed to remove sin or illness. As a pictorial theme it is most closely associated with Section 65 of Ise…

A piece of silk used for a Buddhist painting, particularly icon painting, which is sanctified at a ceremony in esoteric…

An honorific word for *sudare 簾. Bamboo blinds that are used in shrines,…

A variation on the usual style of opaque sliding partitioning screen *fusuma …

Also sudaregaki 簾垣. A bamboo fence made of various kinds of slender bamboo strips that are set horizontally and…

A place to one side of the approach to a Shinto shrine where visitors perform purification rites, including rinsing the…

Parody pictures. Also nise 擬, yatsushi 略絵, fūryū 風流. Analogues of Japanese and Chinese…

Lit. "re-used-object water basins." A type of water basin *chōzubachi…

Sometimes called mitesakigumi 三手先組. A three-stepped-bracket complex composed of three projecting sets of bracket…

One of the ceremonies performed at the time of shrine construction when the doors of the main shrine building are hung. At…

Structural elements found within the same plane, or positioned in a straight line.

Lit. "three-flowered bargeboard pendant." A decorative gable pendant *gegyo…

A decorative gable pendant *gegyo 懸魚 covering the ends of purlins in a gable…

Lit. "Litharge painting." A modern term for a type of ancient oil painting that uses lead oxide, or *…

Lit. "yellow lead monoxide," PbO. Made by heating lead. Used as a yellow pigment in early Japanese painting, for example on…

Also called mitsudogumi 三斗組 or mitsudo-zukuri 三斗造. A 3-on-1 bracket complex. It carries a wall purlin and…

Also mitsuki 見附.

1　A structural member, or a part of one, seen from the front. For…

Paper made from the fibres of mitsumata 三椏 (edgeworthia papyrifera). The mitsumata bush, native…

Also called mitsumoya osame 三母屋納; mitsumoya-zukuri 三母屋造. The location or positioning of the base of a…

Also referred to as mitsumune-zukuri 三棟造. Lit. "three ridges." This type of construction is found chiefly in single…

A three-fold door. A door that has two sections, each of which has three leaves. The outer leaf is hinged to the middle leaf…

Also called mitsutorii 三鳥居 or sankō torii 三光鳥居. An entrance gate to a Shinto shrine comprised of three…

Lit. "mandala of a shrine." Devotional paintings (usually on large hanging scrolls) of the landscape of a shrine and its…