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JAANUS

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  • (-) Castles (48)
  • Architecture (48)

Displaying 1 - 48 of 48
Title Contains Image(s) Description Keywords
hachimaki doi 鉢巻土居

A "headband" earthen embankment. An earthen embankment with a stone wall constructed on the upper portion. Also …

Architecture, Castles
hanebashi 桔橋

Also written 刎橋. A draw bridge. A bridge that has a metal hinge attached to the castle side and a rope attached to the the…

Architecture, Castles
hanmasugata 半桝形

A type of protective box-shaped enclosure *masugata 桝形, found at a castle…

Architecture, Castles
heishitaji nuki-no-ireyō 塀下地貫入様

A method used to insert braces into an earthen wall. One brace was placed above the upper cross piece. Another brace was…

Architecture, Castles
heishitaji 塀下地 The material used to build an earthen wall for a castle. This material must be harder than that used for residences in… Architecture, Castles
hikaebei 控塀

Any upright pole or post which forms the inner core of an earthen wall with a tiled and gabled roof. One example is found…

Architecture, Castles
hikaegui 控杭 Any upright pole or post added to the inside of a castle wall for extra support. While hikaegui increased the strength of… Architecture, Castles
hikihashi 引橋

1 Lit. a pull bridge. A type bridge that can be pulled into a castle. One such example is the …

Architecture, Castles
hira-ishi 平石

Also tsuki-ishi 築石. Broad, flat construction stones used to build the main sections of stone walls *…

Architecture, Castles
hirajiro 平城

Lit. flatland castle. A castle built on a plain with the main defensive elements being rivers, swamps, and man-made moats.…

Architecture, Castles
hirayamajiro 平山城

Also read hirasanjiro. Lit. flatland mountain castle. A castle built on a low mountain, defined as 20 to 100 m high…

Architecture, Castles
hizumiguruwa 邪郭

Also written 斜郭. A diagonal section of wall forming part of a gateway barrier *…

Architecture, Castles
hōkeiyakata 方形館

Lit. Square-shape mansion. A medieval fortified military-class mansion that is surrounded by a square-shaped, or more…

Architecture, Castles
honjō 本城

1 The main or central fortification withina single castle. It is similar to *…

Architecture, Castles
honmaru 本丸

Lit. main circle. The principal compound in a castle complex which has more than one compound or ward. It is often, but not…

Architecture, Castles
hori 堀 ✓

A moat that completely or partially surrounds a castle, palace, or mansion. Moats are primarily for protection but may…

Architecture, Castles
horikiri 堀切

A dry moat *karabori 空堀, dug to separate and hinder passage between two peaks…

Architecture, Castles
horiuchimichi 堀内道

A pathway that runs along the bottom of a dry moat *karabori 空堀. Dry moats…

Architecture, Castles
kagamizumi 鏡積み

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

Architecture, Castles
kakehashi 掛橋

Also written 架橋 and 懸橋. A wooden bridge that spans a water-filled moat. Supported by posts, the bridge can be removed when a…

Architecture, Castles
kaku-umadashi 角馬出

A type of defensive gateway barrier *umadashi 馬出, consisting of an earthen…

Architecture, Castles
kakushiguchi 陰口

Also written 隠口. A hidden castle entrance.



1 A castle entrance *…

Architecture, Castles
kamae 構

Kamae is an earthen embankment constructed so that it cannot be invaded by an enemy. It has the same meaning as *…

Architecture, Castles
kangō shūraku 環濠集落

A settlement surrounded by a moat. The earliest enclosed settlement appeared about 2000 years ago and is associated with the…

Architecture, Castles
karabori 空堀 ✓

A dry moat, usually with a V-shaped cross-section called *yagenbori 薬研堀. The…

Architecture, Castles
karametemon 搦手門

Also karameteguchi 搦手口. Term used for the rear gate of a castle from the medieval period onward. Term used in…

Architecture, Castles
kasane-umadashi 重馬出

Multiple barriers *umadashi 馬出, erected or naturally occurring…

Architecture, Castles
kasanezaka 重坂

Also read kasanarizaka. A type of warrior run *mushabashiri…

Architecture, Castles
katsuragi 葛城

An arrowroot vine fortress. A temporary fortification that dates to the ancient period. Similar to a briar tree fortresses…

Architecture, Castles
kazashi かざし

Also written 風子, 翳. Lit. shade. Walls, embankments, or plants used to prevent the enemy from seeing the activities inside a…

Architecture, Castles
kido 城戸

Sometimes also written 木戸. A castle door or gate. The entrance and exit to a medieval castle. A simpler structure than the…

Architecture, Castles
kikkōzumi 亀甲積 ✓

Lit. tortoise shell stack. Also called roppōzumi 六法積; or hachi-no-su 蜂の巣 meaning honeycomb or bee hive. An…

Architecture, Castles
kiridōshi 切通

A road, or entrance, that is constructed by cutting through mountainous or hilly terrain, leaving sharply hewed vertical…

Architecture, Castles
kirigishi 切岸

A man-made, precipitous bank or steep bluff excavated while constructing a road through mountainous terrain *…

Architecture, Castles
kirikomihagi 切込矧ぎ ✓

Lit. cut and inserted masonry. A type of stone wall *ishigaki 石垣 construction…

Architecture, Castles
kōgo-ishi 神篭石

Ancient castle ruins in Western Japan. Rows of stones arranged on mountain slopes in Kyūshū 九州 and Western Japan, including…

Architecture, Castles
koguchi 虎口

Lit. tiger mouth. A castle entrance. An early modern term likening the castle gateway to the tooth and fang of a tiger,…

Architecture, Castles
kojiro 子城

Lit. child castle. A branch castle. The main castle is called oyajiro 親城 (parent castle).

Architecture, Castles
koshiguruwa 腰郭

Lit. waist compound. In a mountain castle *yamajiro 山城, a…

Architecture, Castles
koshimaki doi 腰巻土居

Also termed koshimaki-ishigaki 腰巻石垣, a waist-bandstone wall. A stone wall built around the lower part of an earthen…

Architecture, Castles
kotenshu 小天守

A small subsidiary tower. When a castle complex has two or more donjons, the largest is called *…

Architecture, Castles
kuichigai 喰違

Staggered embankments. A castle-wall design where the left and right embankments *doi…

Architecture, Castles
kuri-ishi 栗石

Also pronounced guri-ishi. Chestnut stones. Small stones (10-30 cm in diameter) that were used as packing or…

Architecture, Castles
kuruwa 郭

Also written 曲輪. The general term for a castle compound. In the medieval period, when a mountain castle *…

Architecture, Castles
kuzurezumi 崩積

A crumbling wall. A type of stone fence *ishigaki 石垣 in which stones are…

Architecture, Castles
kyojō 居城

Also read ijō and ijiro. A castle or fortification in which the castle lord resides on a daily basis…

Architecture, Castles
kyokan 居館

1 A manor or palace, yakata 館, where a lord resides.


2 In the case…

Architecture, Castles
kyūkado sama 急角狭間

A corner loophole or gunport. Loopholes made at a ninety-degree corner of a castle wall, rather than in a flat wall. The…

Architecture, Castles

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JAANUS is the on-line Dictionary of Japanese Architectural and Art Historical Terminology compiled by Dr. Mary Neighbour Parent.

Originally built by the Atsumi International Scholarship Foundation, it is now hosted and maintained by the Media Center for Art History at Columbia University