Lit. snake belly board. The boards lined up under the thick eave ends nokizuke 軒付 of a cypress bark *…

Lit. snake's belly.

1　A cornice. Called nokijabara 軒蛇腹, at the eaves of a building and …

Also called honshirin 本支輪 (main shirin). A short, curved, non-supporting transitional member that connects…

Lit. snake belly ceiling. An open or exposed ceiling composed of curved, parallel rafters, thought to resemble a snake's…

Lit. snake skin. The boards lined up under the thick eave ends nokizuke 軒付 of a cypress bark *…

Gravel, small stones, or pebbles. A corrupted form of sazare 細 meaning tiny stones. Jari have been given…

Also called omodaruki 母垂木. A base rafter that extends outward from the roof framework, generally the eave purlin *…

Also read chien hikaku. Double eaves *futanoki 二軒, composed of base…

1　A sleeper. The lowermost horizontal beam that spans the width of a bay *…

Also written 地幅石. A long horizontal base stone, sometimes called a sleeper, or a continuous plinth course. It is placed at…

Also 地形 chikei. The preliminary foundation work on a building. Materials for this include: rubble *…

Also 軸孔; jikuzuriana 軸吊穴; jiku uke 軸受; tobira jikuana 扉軸穴. The socket into which the pivot hinge…

The framework or body of a building between the foundation and the roof structure. In traditional architecture it includes…

Also written 軸釣, 軸摺. Pivot hinge. A metal covered wooden-core pivot inserted into a socket *…

Also called shimonuki 下貫. A penetrating tie beam at the base of a pillar or a tie beam beneath a building's…

A base hip rafter found at the corners of a roof. Ordinary rafters *jidaruki…

A latticed door made with both horizontal and vertical laths at the same surface level. There are no recessed laths nailed…

Also written 帖.

1　A counter for screens *byōbu 屏風 and…

Art of the Pure Land faith. Originating in the Nara period, Pure Land Buddhism is a more personal form of the faith than…

The Jōgan gishiki is a ten volume collection of ceremony regulations compiled by Fujiwara Ujimune 藤原氏宗 by order of…

Lit. cord-mark period. The Jōmon period ran from ca. 10,000 BC-ca. 300 BC. The period takes its name from the decoration on…

The upper level of a two-stepped podium *nijū kidan 二重基壇. The lower level is…

Principal transverse beam. The beam that receives the diagonal braces at the end of a gable roof. It also supports the ridge…

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…

Also called meutsubari めうつ梁. The lower and shorter of two transverse members at right angles to the lintel *…

A roofed passageway that runs from front to back in a long building. One example separates the *…

Lit. "famous thing." Term applied to items of tea ceremony *chanoyu 茶湯…

Also mikakushibei 見隠塀. From mekakushi or mikakushi. Lit. "fence hidden from the eyes or…

A type of iron clamp 8 to 15 cm long that allows a top framing beam *uchinorinuki…

Blind mullions. Mullions that are set so closely together that what is behind them cannot be seen. Some blind mullions are…

Also called nemurimeji 眠目地. A butt or closed joint, where pavement stones abut so seamlessly that they appear to be…

Also written 面板. The flat faces of a board. The flat faces of the boards between the narrow horizontal strips *…

Also read as tsura, which means the surface or face of a structural member.

1　The chamfer…

Possibly a corruption of medo 目処. A gap between two things. A board used to cover or fill a gap is called mendo…

Also menkawa 面皮. A pillar or post *hashira 柱, rafter *…

The curved base of a bearing block.

Also pronounced mendori. The chamfered or beveled edge of a pillar, post, piece of furniture, piece of latticework…

A square post or pillar with chamfered corners.

Lit. "husband and wife windows"; double windows. A type of window used in a tea ceremony house *…

The meeting of two structural elements that butt together. Examples include sliding doors *…

Lit. "eye-gap door." A simple informal door that is composed of horizontal lattice yokogōshi 横格子 set fairly widely…

Lit. "eye-fastening post." Also mitsukibashira 見付柱; sumibashira 隅柱. A guide post. The corner post at the…

Also keshō-ita 化粧板. A flat, sheathing board attached to the underside of the eaves of a wooden dwelling. The…

A ceiling plan drawn exactly in relation to the floor plan, i.e., viewed as if a person were lying on his back looking…

Lit. "hidden from sight."

1　A structural member, part of which is not visible because it is inserted…

1　A surface of a Japanese architectural component that faces front.

2　Endpaper,…