A type of *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 print which shows one or several actors in a stage pose or…

Lit. "picture books illustrating actors." Books that bound together actor prints, but also included theater and stage scenes…

Printed books criticizing actors' skills. Theater reviews were not published in booklet form until 1656 with Yakusha-no-…

Keka 悔過 is a term used in Buddhism meaning repentance of one's sins, and refers to the chanting of prayers to…

The name of the Buddha associated with healing. Sino-Japanese rendering of Sanskrit Bhaisajyaguru, meaning "Medicine Master…

A Buddhist temple hall housing a statue of *Yakushi 薬師 (Sk: Bhaisajyaguru), the Buddha…

Ch: Yaoshan Li'ao. A Zen 禅 painting subject depicting the philosophical debate between the Tang dynasty hermit-priest…

Ch: Yaoshan she chenzhongchen; lit. "Yakusan's Shooting of the Great King of the Big Deers." A Zen 禅 (Ch: Chan)…

Lit. "mountain indigo." Perennial plant 30-40 cm high, Mercurialis leiocarpa Sieb. et zuc., used to make a blue dye…

Lit. "mountain stone." A generic name for stones found or quarried in the mountains. Unlike sea stones *…

Also read Yamagoshi no Amida; Amida yamagoe (yamagoshi) raigō 阿弥陀山越来迎. Lit. "Amida…

A mountain castle entrance. The entrance *koguchi 虎口 of a mountain…

Lit. "mountain castle." A castle built on a mountain to take advantage of the mountain's topography. One of the three main…

Lit. "mountain eye pounding and inserting piling." A dry construction method used to pile stones for a stone wall *…

A window used especially in the Zen style *zenshūyō 禅宗様; a type of ogival…

Also written 楊梅樹. A brown vegetable dye senryō 染料 obtained from the evergreen tree Myrica rubra,…

1　An abbreviation for yamatouchi-no-to 大和打の戸 or yamatouchi 大和打. A door that has vertical…

Lit. "gardens in the style of Japanese painting." Also called sakuteikiryū 作庭記流 (gardens in the lineage of the…

Also written 大和絵 and 倭絵. A widely used description term which has carried various nuances in different periods, but…

The most commonly used style of mounting hanging scrolls *kakemono 掛物 in…

A fence made of widths of bleached bamboo spaced about 45 cm apart and held in place by bark. This type of fence is used in…

1　A type of board roofing made by first spacing boards of equal width at predetermined intervals and then…

A type of bamboo lattice entwined with wisteria vine set in a window opening *…

An alternative term for a roof style found on Edo period farmhouses nōka 農家, called *…

Also musubitoji 結び綴じ, lit. "knot-binding." The simplest style of book-binding, and usually a type of pouch-binding…

Also read Yamanba. Oni-onna 鬼女 (demonic woman) or yama-onna 山女 (mountain woman) are used occasionally.…

Lit. "willow shelf." An asymmetrical arrangement of three decorative shelves tokowakidana 床脇棚 arranged in the…

Also yanagikakekugi 柳掛け釘. A nail hammered into a partially plastered post yanagibashira 柳柱 (see *…

Also yamadake 屋間竹. The bamboo purlins, about 20-30 cm in circumference, that are placed about 30-36 cm apart over a…

A generic name for various types of roofing boards including *noji-ita…

The construction of the roof framework or roof truss over the body of a building. The essential framing for a gable roof *…

Also called okugai 屋蓋, lit. "roof covering." A generic term for various types of roofs, roof styles, and roofing.…

Roofing or roof covering. The most commonly used types of roofing are clay tiles *…

Rethatching, retiling, or reshingling a roof whereby old roofing is replaced with new roofing.

Also kobanekugi 小羽根釘. Small round bamboo roofing nails, with a diameter between 2.1 to 2.8 mm and a length from 50…

1　See *keshō yaneura 化粧屋根裏.

2　An…

Lit. "broken well crib." Also yabureigeta. A design used for muntins *kumiko…

A plane thought to have been the only plane employed in ancient times to pare and finish timber. Today carpenters do not use…

Lit. "water course." An archaic term for a shallow, curving garden stream. The term, found in the 11th-century garden manual…

A loophole for thrusting pikes and spears. Typically, they are installed in narrow locations beside main castle entrances…

Also *yasaka-zukuri 祇園造. A style of shrine architecture which began in the…

A Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing the suffering spirit of a woman who dies from…

Emaciated man. Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing a ghost suffering in hell. Lean…

Also yakusha 薬叉 (Sk: yaksa), a class of semi-divine beings usually considered to be of a benevolent and…

Also written 夜叉付子. A brown vegetable dye senryō 染料 made from the alder tree (Alnus firma), which…

An eight-legged gate *hakkyakumon 八脚門 (1653) located at Rinnōji Taiyūin…

A small castle or fortification built like a a country house or mansion yashiki 屋敷. In the middle ages, it usually…

1　The front gate of a warrior's manor house.

2　A gate, now called Kyū tōjin…

A pictorial subject depicting scenes from the Battle at Yashima, an important engagement in the Genpei Battles Genpei…

1　A Shinto shrine.

2　In very ancient times before permanent buildings were erected…

U-shaped metal pieces nailed to a gate, allowing it to be locked with a sliding timber gate-bar *…

A right-angled joint with a dovetail spline tenon *hozo ほぞ that resembles a…

Also called sashiki 差木, yatoiki 雇木, or machihozo 待ほぞ.

1　A spline tenon. A…

Lit. "the character eight 八 yatsu." The practice of propping three or four posts around a newly replanted tree. The…

1　Lit. "eight bridges." A type of low bridge built over a shallow pond or marsh using wooden planks without…

Lit. "eight-ridge construction." A complicated roof style with multiple ridges and bargeboards, or large vernacular house…

A type of decorated beam *kibana 木鼻 which is a simplified version of Japanese…

A method of stone-splitting achieved by boring a hole in the stone. A wedge *kusabi…

The Yayoi period (ca. 400 BCE to 250 CE). The period is marked by the establishment of rice cultivation and an agrarian…

An arrow loophole in a castle wall. Also sengan 箭眼. Characterized by a vertical opening about 45 cm high (1 …

Positive castle entrance or yang entrance. A generic term for various types of castle entrance *…

A suffix. When used in architectural history, it means a technical style, as in *…

Lit. "whistle shape." A type of water basin *chōzubachi 手水鉢 which resembles…

Also yodogi 淀木 or yodonuki 淀貫. Tapered horizontal timber, 12-15 cm wide and 4.5 cm thick, placed on top of…

Western-influenced paintings and prints produced in Japan before the Meiji period, including *…

Western-style painting produced during the Meiji period. Yōga employed the use of western materials such as oil…

Also written 用害.

1　A place of strategic importance, having steep terrain that is easy to defend. In…

Lit. "wish-granting mudra (Sk: varada mudra)"; also segan-in 施願印. A mudra or hand gesture *…

In ancient times called fukukai 伏拝; ippukuhai 一伏拝. The worship of a god that is enshrined at a distant…

A blank, unpainted space. It is considered one of the identifying characteristics of both Chinese and Japanese painting.…

Also called nuritate bashira 塗立柱, nuridashi bashira 塗出柱 or yanagi bashira 柳柱. A corner pillar in…

Also called chikara gane 力鉄 or kanehōzu-e 鉄方杖.
Slender iron rods used to strengthen the extensions of…

A four and a half 4 1/2 mat tea ceremony room *chashitsu 茶室, the most common…

Lit. "four mats and a half cut." A firebox or hearth used in a 4 1/2 mat or larger tea ceremony room *…

Also bakemono-e 化物絵 and yūrei-e 幽霊絵. *Ukiyo-e 浮世絵 prints that depict…

Ch: Yang Guifei (719-56). The famous Chinese beauty and concubine of Emperor Xuanzong (Jp: *…

1　Horizontal, parallel boards with a wood grain that runs sideways. In shrine architecture *…

Carmine, a crimson pigment. An alkaline organometallic compound, taken from the female cochineal insect which lives on…

A lateral dry moat excavated crosswise in front of a mountain castle *yamajiro…

A pictorial subject based on "The Flute," Yokobue, Chapter 37 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale of…

Also hikigi 引木 Lit. "horizontal timber." Although the term yokogi can refer to any horizontal timber, it…

A long, rectangular worship hall at a Shinto shrine with entrances on the front and rear sides parallel to the ridge. The…

Also Yokohama 横浜 *ukiyo-e 浮世絵. Late ukiyo-e prints which depicted foreigners at the port…

Also called *oshibuchi 押縁. Narrow, thin battens placed horizontally over…

A side loophole of the *yarisama 鑓狭間 type for pike and spears. Typically…

Closely spaced horizontal crosspieces commonly found on latticed doors *mairado…

1　The horizontal line of a bamboo joint.

2　The line carved into the short posts at…

Lit. "side arrow."

1　Attacking from the side. Also sokusha 側射, sokubō 側防. An…

Also written 横矢斜 and 横矢歪. Lit. "distorted rampart." A diagonal projection from a castle rampart. Used by defending troops to…

Also termed demasugata 出桝形. A defensive box-shaped courtyard *masugata…

Also written 横矢隅落. A diagonally cut-away corner of a castle tower, used to launch side attacks *…

1　The seat of the principal and most honored guest sonsha 尊者 at formal banquets in the shinden…

Also called nakazan 中桟. A generic term for the parallel crosspieces used to frame doors, windows, and other…

A timber door frame into which horizontal boards are set. The seams tsugime 継目 are hidden by crosspieces nailed in…

Lit. "wing corridors." A corridor that extends outward from the side or rear of a building. Examples: Byōdōin *…

Lit. "sun bright gate."

1　One of the 12 gates located on the east side of the outer enclosure of the…

Also called *kirizuka 切束, komitatara 込たたら. A short strut…

Lit. "reading books." An Edo period woodblock printed novel prevalent from the mid to late Edo period that focused on…