Also called iga いが. Lit. cusp.

1　The point where two curved lines or forms meet. The…

A ladder hewed from a single log during the Yayoi period.

A single window or door opening. Also, a single door or window. They may swing on hinges one way, both ways, or slide.

A term used in all parts of Japan in the Edo period, for a straight shelf *tana…

1　A generic term for any group of structural members set in a grid pattern.　

2　The…

Also abbreviated to ijō 居定. The degree of pitch on the underside of a rafter support *…

Lit. to keep flowers alive. Flower arrangements. Originated in Buddhist flower offerings kuge 供花 from the 6th…

The aesthetic ideal of the Edo merchant class during the late 18th and 19th centuries, combining material sensuality and…

Slip fasteners. The wooden or bamboo pieces used on the reverse side of the overlapped boards of a board-and-batten ceiling…

Also sasuzuka sasuzaoshiki 扠首束扠首竿式, *sasuzao 扠首竿, *…

Also written 犬行. Lit. dog run. A narrow inset in wall ramparts, or in an embankment of earth forming a footpath or ledge.…

Also pronounced inubōgi.

1　In temples and shrines, a lattice *…

Also called komafusegi 駒防ぎ. Concave screens about 60 cm high and of varying length made of closely-spaced bent…

General drawings which reflect all the contents of a building, its plan and design. Such drawings must depict the function…

Also called *wata-ita 綿板. Thin panels of wood inserted between the rails …

Also called moyabashira 母屋柱 or 身舎柱. Pillars that are erected inside and parallel to the pillars positioned on the…

A door frame made of a head lintel and vertical door jambs to which doors are attached with hinges.

Pillars *hashira 柱 at the inner boundary of a pent roof…

1　A corridor or passageway between the main body of a residence and the veranda. It is also found in temple…

Purlins, *keta 桁, placed along the tops of pillars surrounding the…

The bargeboards on the gable end of a hip-and-gable roof *irimoya yane…

A hip-and-gable roof. In Japanese architecture, the gable part is usually over the core area of the building, *…

A hip-and-gable roof construction, or a building with this roof construction. A gable type roof has a ridge and gable…

The internal angle made by the junction of two planes, such as walls, a wall and ceiling, or the inside angle made by the…

Also kanokodate 鹿の子建 and ishitsuki 石付. A technique used at a folk dwelling to attach a pillar to a…

The point at which a base stone and a pillar are joined. The upper surface of a plinth stone on which another stone may be…

1　The cutting and arrangement of stones.

2　The layout of masonry.

Also written 鈑 or 版. Originally a relatively thin flat timber, stone, or sheet of metal. In the medieval period (1185-1568…

A thin, flat stone resembling a board. Also called a plate stone. The stone can be divided into three types depending on the…

Traditional transoms that are made of wood and have sections filled with a single board, or one or two parts are filled with…

Also called itabari tenjō 板張天井 or *hariita tenjō 張板天井…

A wooden board or plank fence. Wooden fences made of planks and set directly into the ground are called hottate itabei…

One type of pagoda or stupa, tōba 塔婆, in the form of a flat stone stele that became prevalent in the early 13th…

Wood shingles. Widely used in Japan for buildings of many kinds, ranging from palaces, elite residences, shrines, and…

A roof structure covered with boards or planks. Various names are used depending on the size of the boards. A large plan…

Wooden panels with the grain set in alternating directions in a coffered ceiling *…

1　The boards covered by tightly woven straw mats *tatami 畳,…

An Edo period term for wooden planks with a rectangular cross-section, between 5 cm and 30 cm thick. These planks were cut…

A common type of wooden board flooring commonly used before thick straw matting *tatami…

Also read itagarado; also called itatobira 板扉. A 6th-7th century door made of a single, thick wooden plank…

Thick boards used to cover exposed base rafters visible under eaves. Examples: Eihōji Kannondō 永保寺観音堂 (1315), Gifu…

Also read itaoshi. Battens used to prevent boards from moving. They are long, thin strips of wood set vertically…

A shortened form of itomasame 糸柾目. Straight, narrow grained wood. Two examples are Japanese arborvitae, nezuko…

A very narrow, chamfer about 3 mm wide, made by planing the corners of posts. The term has been used from the 17th century…

A rare five-stepped bracket complex found at a temple on Sado 佐渡 Island, Niigata Prefecture.

A plank door filled with widely set, horizontal laths, kozan 小桟.

Also abarawari あばら割. Lit. "sparsely proportioned." The same meaning as ma-mabara 間疎 (sparse or scanty).…

1　Posts or pillars of the same or smaller diameter than the main pillars of a building.

2…

Translucent sliding screens *shōji 障子, opaque screens *…

Also pronounced chō.

1　The raised paths that divided and defined sunken paddies in ancient…

Window. Many other characters for window used have been used since the 6th century. For example: 窗 and 牒, 向 and 間戸 or 間門.…

A window sill. The horizontal part at the bottom of a window frame in a wooden building. The sill is supported by the base…

The window frame into which a window sash is installed. The timber that surrounds a window.

The non-penetrating tie beams used for the frame of a window opening. One, called madoshita nageshi 窓下長押, is placed…

A floor plan. The arrangement of rooms in a dwelling, including access points, windows, hallways, verandas, toilets, and…

Posts placed on each side of a window. In the case of thatched tea ceremony houses *…

A window frame into which a window sash or casing is set. The frame consists of two vertical side pieces, tatewaku…

The front gable of a gable roof that flows directly away from the ridge and extends further than the rear gable. The long…

A transverse timber positioned at the base of the latticework *kitsune gōshi…

Latticework or a grille *kōshi 格子 positioned between the hard-packed earthen…

Lit. "a true carpenter's square." A right angle or a 90 degree angle. A structural element that corresponds to a right angle…

Also 孫庇; matabisashi 又庇, 又廂. Lit. "grandchild aisle." A narrow additional aisle. Traditional buildings, especially…

A small section within a translucent sliding screen *shōji 障子 that can be opened…

Also called kozuka 小束. A very short strut or post used in a roof truss. Magozuka are the shortest struts…

1　The length of the front facade of a building or frontage of a plot of land from corner to corner. …

Lintel, header or head jamb. Also magosa まごさ. A lintel without grooves or tracks, placed horizontally at the top of…

A wooden sliding door constructed of a single wooden panel *wata-ita…

Thin, parallel strips of wood about 2-3 cm wide and 1.8 cm thick affixed to the front and back of a door *…

A partition. The partitioning or dividing of an interior or an individual room into separate spaces, allowing for tremendous…

Pillars that are decorated with ornamental bands. The bands may be made of metal, painted with lacquer or covered with…

Small, square, or slightly rectangular bearing blocks placed on a bracket arm *hijiki…

1　A wedge-shaped piece of wood used to join structural members.

2　Short members…

Also called makurabasami 枕挟 or makurabakama 枕袴. The non-penetrating tie beams *…

Lit. "a half door." Also called hantobira 半扉 or hando 半戸, both meaning a half door. A low door, about one…

A style of gable roof, manekiyane 招屋根, in which one side is a standard normal length from ridge to eave ends and…

An arrangement of bargeboards *hafu 破風 on a gable roof *…

Also called *nehijiki 根肘木. Bracket arms used to support the shorter side…

A descending corner ridge that connects the main ridge with a lower main ridge. This corner ridge, also known as …

The shorter eave on the rear section of a gable roof. The shrine style *nagare-…

Braces that extend outward from the central posts to support the eave end *manekinoki …

Lit. "full moon shelf." A type of shelving *chigaidana 違い棚,…

Mullions *kumiko 組子 in a decorative pattern of connected,…

Lit. "a bean-jam dumpling shape." Also called hanjukei 半珠形. A half-spherical shape.

1…

Also called enchū 円柱.

1　A circular pillar or post. In the early periods (7th-13th…

Also written 丸窓, also called yoshinomado 吉野窓. A window which is circular or a circular window with a flat…

Also written 円面. A type of chamfer with rounded edges or corners, for example, on an otherwise square post. To produce this…

A log or pole. Some scholars believe that this term replaced maruhada 丸肌 (log skin). A generic term for a log,…

A post made from a log, that has either the bark remaining or its bark stripped off but is not pared off smoothly.

Cylindrical struts. One example is a bottle strut *taiheizuka 大瓶束, used…

Straight grain. The grain that runs parallel to the growth of the tree or at right angle to the tree rings. The quality of…

A gradual increase in the height of such structural members as rafters *taruki…

Also read to, sometimes written 枡. A box for measuring.

1　Any bearing block that is square…

Stones cut into a cube or close to a perfect cube. Shaped like the square wooden measuring device *masu…

Also pronounced togumi, sometimes written 枡組. Synonyms are *tokyō …

A right angle bisected exactly; for example, a hip rafter that bisects the corner framework forming a 45 degree angle on…

Also written 廻縁. A long edging board or finishing board that covers the junction point of a wall and ceiling. The finishing…

Also called oimawashijiki 追回敷. The placement of straw mats *tatami 畳,…

Also called mawatashi 間渡. Horizontal strips of split or whole bamboo or other type of wood that extend between the…

Sometimes called itabuki me-ita 板葺目板. Narrow boards or panel strips nailed over the joints of adjacent boards. When…