Lit. cave alcove. A cave-like entrance to a tea ceremony room, partially enclosed by a side wall. The side wall is called *…

Also horaketa. The first two of a series of purlins that support hidden rafters *…

Also horakuchi. An opening on the side wall of an alcove *tokonoma…

Lit. Penglai distant mountain stone. A technique in which the stone representing Mt. Penglai *…

Lit. Penglai rock island. The technique of representing Mt. Penglai *Hōraisan…

Lit. Penglai garden. A general term for a garden focused thematically on Mt. Penglai *…

Lit. Penglai style. A type of garden in which there presentation of Mt. Penglai *…

Also called a boat stone funa-ishi 舟石 or treasure-boat stone takarabune-ishi 宝舟石. Lit. Penglai boat. A…

1　Lit. Mt. Penglai. Ch: Penglaishan. The most famous of the three Elysian mountain-isles believed to lie…

Lit. Penglai stone. A garden stone representing Mt. Penglai *Hōraisan 蓬莱山,…

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

Lit. night attack on the Horikawa Palace. A pictorial subject depicting one of the many events in the life of tragic hero…

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

1　The skills, process, and work of carving in wood, bamboo, stone, metal, or other materials. It also…

A method of color application in *yamato-e やまと絵, whereby the…

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

A style of passageway or corridor on the outside of a temple, shrine, palace, or mansion. The passageway often connects two…

A specific type of mandala *besson mandara 別尊曼荼羅, based on the Daihō…

Measurements of a Buddhist statue and attachments. They include:

sōkō 総高: full height including the…

Also sujikō 筋光, nukigokō 貫後光, and kasagokō 傘御光. A radial nimbus. A type of the…

Lit. star mandara. A variety of dedicated mandala *Butsugen mandara…

An abbreviation of hōshogami 奉書紙, hōsho paper. A type of *washi…

Also *aka-e 赤絵. A woodblock print colored only with shades of red. The color was…

Lit. narrow format. A size of *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 print. The term hosoban is…

Lit. long narrow hall.

1　In Buddhist architecture, a long narrow structure set in front of…

1　Also read hossōge, an abbreviation of hōsōgemon 宝相華文. Lit. precious flower. Hōsōge…

1　Abbreviation of hōsōge karakusamon 宝相華唐草文. A type of Chinese arabesque design *…

A book of explanations and regulations of tea ceremony in one volume, believed to be the teaching of Ichio Iori 一尾伊織 (1602-…

The new timber used to repair or restore a traditional wooden building. Sometimes an entire rotted member is replaced, and…

Also known as osaehikinoko 押挽鋸. A thin bladed crosscut saw used to make a plane (see *…

Also hassai 髪際. Lit. Hairline. The point where the hair meets the forehead on a sculpted figure. The hairline is…

Lit. Six Patriarchs of the Hossō sect. In Japan: Shin'ei 神叡 (d. 737), Genbō 玄昉 (d. 746), Zenshu 善珠 (723-97), Gyōga 行賀(729-…

Also 白払. A kind of brush, used to drive away insects during meditation. The hossu originated in ancient India, and…

A pictorial subject taken from "Fireflies" Hotaru, Chapter 25 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale of…

Ch: Budai. A semi-legendary, itinerant 10th-century Buddhist monk who became a popular subject in Chinese and Japanese ink…

1　Lit. treasure pagoda. A generic name for a pagoda (Sk: stupa) of a type associated with the Buddhist…

Also read hōdo. The bearing block placed in the center of criss-cross bracket arms *…

The act of passing a Buddhist statue from the hands of the artist to the temple that commissioned the piece. Because the…

An unusual type of pagoda-shaped lantern found in a graveyard at Tsubakidera 椿寺 near Kitano Tenmangū 北野天満宮 in Kyoto.…

Also hōfukuzō 法服像. Lit. portrait in religious (i.e. Buddhist) appearance. A portrait of a person who has taken…

Also written 掘立て柱, 掘建て柱. Earth fast posts. Posts *hashira 柱 whose feet, …

Also written 掘立て小屋, 掘建て小屋.

1　A simply constructed vernacular hut with earthfast posts *…

Also written 掘立て, 掘建て. A construction technique whereby the feet of posts, hashira-no-nemoto 柱の根元, are embedded…

Old pronunciation was hoso. A tenon. Protuberances of differing shape and size made on the end of wood, stone, or…

A mortise. A cavity hewn from a timber or stone member or cut in metal to receivea tenon *…

The square struts used to support the ends of veranda boards. Circular posts are thought to have been used earlier than…

Lit. A hundred tales. Traditional and contemporary ghost stories as told, written, and illustrated in the Edo period. Early…

Lit. one million pagodas. Wooden, miniature, three-storied, circular, memorial pagodas wrought on a lathe for Empress Kōken…

Lit. Single poems by 100 poets. A collection of waka 和歌 compiled by Fujiwara no Teika 藤原定家 (also known as Sadaie,…

Mounting. Also termed *hyōsō 表装. Hyōgu refers to the mounting of a…

The covers of a bound book *sasshibon 冊子本, or an accordion book *…

To mount a work of art in a hanging scroll *kakemono 掛物, handscroll *…

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…