Lit. thorn tree fortress. A simple and usually temporary fortress surrounded by thorn trees or briar bushes to defend it…

The first or main gate of a castle. At Matsuyamajō 松山城 in Ehime Prefecture, the gate plan was square *…

Lit. house castle.

1　A castle in the stage of historical development from a strictly military…

Defensive castle entrance, or yin entrance. A generic term for various types castle entrance *…

Defensive castle compounds in no kuruwa 陰の郭 and offensive castle compounds yō no kuruwa 陽の郭. In Chinese,…

Also read inaki. Lit. rice plant fortress. A small and temporary defensive palisade of bundles or sheaves of rice…

Loopholes or gun ports that are cut in a castle wall at the height of a seated defender's shoulder. The holes are mainly…

The depth of a stone in a stone wall *ishigaki 石垣. This is the…

Also termed ishi otoshimado 石落窓. Stone drop, or stone drop window. A castle installation built into the keep *…

A dry stone wall. A retaining stone foundation wall built without binding materials over an inclined earthen embankment.…

A stone loophole used to fire a gun through a castle wall. Unlike the usual loopholes *…

A shelf or platform from which stones or small rocks were hurled against an enemy. This shelf or platform runs along the…

A loophole *sama 狭間 cut in a wall about chest high to a standing soldier.…

Lit. "confronting castle." Also termed mukaijiro 向城 (facing castle) and *tsukejiro…

Also termed tamon-zukuri 多聞造, tamon'yagura 多聞櫓 (many listen tower) and tamon nagaya 多聞長屋 (many…

A pounded earth embankment. It was made of layers of earth mixed with water, pounded down and allowed to harden. The wall…

Also read tachi. A small castle shiro 城 and/or a wealthy provincial residence *…

A vertical dry moat. Also read tatsubori; sometimes written 立堀, 竪濠. A dry moat *…

Lit. "ladder-shaped compound plan." Short for teikakushiki nawabari 梯郭式縄張. A plan that fortified a castle entrance…

Lit. "tower central pillar." A pillar found in the main structure of castles, sometimes used singly and sometimes in pairs.…

Also called tenshukaku 天守閣, tenshuyagura 天守櫓. Also written 天主, 殿主, and 殿守. The principal tower-like…

The independent raised foundation upon which the principal tower *tenshu 天守 was constructed.…

Also called jūgan 銃眼 (loophole). A gun loophole or gun port. An opening through which to shoot a firearm from…

Also termed nawadarumi 縄だるみ (slackened rope). A concave shaped stone wall with a curved surface that resembles a…

Also read sotojiro. An outer castle or fortification.

1　A separately enclosed fortification…

Also written 取出, 取手, 塞 also 寨. A small-scale fort, fortification, or stronghold. A structure built near the main castle or…

Also written 壷狭間. Large bamboo stalks that are cut in section, painted and placed in outer castle walls and in the walls of…

An intersection barrier. A single barrier that is constructed to defend two entrances to a castle that have been constructed…

1　A fortification built as a staging camp from which to attack an enemy's castle…

A moon viewing tower of the *yagura 櫓 type found at a number of castles. Also…

Also read tsumejiro 詰城, or written 爪城 or tsume-no-shiro 攻の城.

1　The castle…

Same as tsunagijiro or tsunagishiro 繋城.

1　A type of branch castle *…

A decoy wall, or pseudo-wall. A wall that was built so as to hang over an earthen embankment or stone wall of a castle. When…

Tower connected with a gate or another tower. Examples connected to gates include Hikone-jō Taikomon 彦根城太鼓門 in Shiga…