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JAANUS

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Displaying 1 - 34 of 34
Title Contains Image(s) Description Keywords
hakamagoshi 袴腰 ✓

1 A trapezoidal form created on top of the posts that frame the host's entrance *…

Architecture, Tea Houses, Structures, Buildings
hakkaku butsuden 八角仏殿

An octagonal hall in a Buddhist temple. One or more Buddhist deities are enshrined within. The record Shizaichō…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
hakkaku enden 八角円殿

An octagonal hall. Temple records owned by Hōryūji 法隆寺 and Gangōji 元興寺 mention the existence of a hakkaku enden as…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
hakkaku endō 八角円堂

Lit. eight-sided circular. An octagonal circular hall *hakkakudō 八角堂,…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
hakkakudō 八角堂 ✓

Also called *hakkaku endō 八角円堂. An octagonal hall. There are six…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
hakkakutō 八角塔 ✓

An octagonal pagoda of which there is only one in Japan. Although a plan to erect an octagonal pagoda existed at Saidaiji…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
hashirō 橋廊

A bridge-like corridor that spans a garden pond or an area between two buildings.

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
hattō 法堂 ✓

A lecture hall which corresponds to the *kōdō 講堂 in temples of…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
hide 碑伝

Markers set at intervals along a mountain trail by ascetic monks called yamabushi 山伏 or shugenja 修験者. Many…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
Higashimuro 東室 ✓

The east dormitory for Buddhist priests at Hōryūji 法隆寺 in Nara. It is located in the west precinct Saiin 西院, and has nine,…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
hiraya 平家 A house with only one story.
Architecture, Buildings, Structures
Hiunkaku 飛雲閣

Lit. a flying cloud tower. Unique, three-storied timber building, rōkaku 楼閣, built in asymmetrical design and…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
hōjō 方丈 ✓

The name given to the type of residence that had evolved by the end of the 14th century for the abbot, i.e., the head priest…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
hokkedō 法華堂 ✓

Also called hokke sanmaidō 法華三昧堂.


1 A meditation hall based on a plan that allows…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
Hokuendō 北円堂

The largest extant octagonal Buddhist temple hall, dated 1210. It is located at Kōfukuji 興福寺 in Nara, and is placed on a…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
hōkyōintō 宝筺印塔 ✓

Lit. Hōkyōin pagoda. A type of pagoda (Sk: stupa) originally made as a repository for copies of the Hōkyōin…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
hondō 本堂 ✓

Lit. main hall. A Buddhist hall housing the principal images most revered by the particular sect of a temple. The use of the…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
Hōōdō 鳳凰堂 ✓

Lit. Phoenix Hall. The Hōōdō is the central hall *Chūdō 中堂 of…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
hosodono 細殿

Lit. long narrow hall.



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

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
hōtō 宝塔

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

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
hyakumantō 百万塔

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

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
Mandaradō 曼荼羅堂 ✓

Also Taimadera *Hondō 当麻寺本堂. Mandaradō literally means a hall…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
mandokoro 政所

The administrative offices housed in the refectory of an ancient temple. During the Heian period, and continuing through the…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
Masodō 媽姐堂 ✓

1 A Chinese temple Sōfukuji 崇福寺 in Nagasaki prefecture, called Masodō, which enshrines a deity called…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
menzō 眠蔵

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

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
midō 御堂

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

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
mieidō 御影堂 ✓

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

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
mirokudō 弥勒堂

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

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
moji-etō 文字絵塔

Sutras written in such a way that the characters form the image of a pagoda. One of the two methods is called moji…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures, Art History, Painting
momitō 籾塔

Lit. "unhulled rice pagoda." A small wooden votive pagoda carved with a knife. It is related to *…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
monbansho 門番所

The quarters for the caretaker of the main gate of a Japanese temple. These may be attached to or near the main gate.

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
Monjudō 文殊堂

A small Buddhist hall dedicated to the Bodhisattva of wisdom *Monju 文殊 (Sk. Manjusri) who usually is…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
muhōtō 無縫塔 ✓

Also written 無方塔. Also *kaisantō 開山塔 or *…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures
muryōjuin 無量寿院

1 A name given to the *amidadō 阿弥陀堂, a temple hall dedicated…

Architecture, Buildings, Structures

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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