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…

1　An early term for long boards used on roofs. Records dating from the 8th century first used the terms…

Lit. "flowing."

1　The flow of the roof line from the ridge *…

The long side of a timber, or a timber placed in a lengthwise direction.

Longhouse, or row house. A house with a long ridge. Also indicates a house with a number of residences connected under a…

A transverse beam *hari 梁 made in two sections and coupled by a stub-tenon-…

Non-penetrating tie beams that are made to fit around pillars *hashira 柱 of…

A long rectangular beam cut along a diagonal cross-section and used as a non-penetrating tie *nageshi…

A sudden strong, upward curve at the corner ends of eaves. Especially characteristic of the Zen style *…

1　An interior wall partition.

2　The inner surface of a wall.

The inner sanctum located in the main halls *kondō 金堂 or *…

Also called moyabashira 母屋柱; irikawabashira入側柱. The pillars placed on the boundary between, or slightly…

1　A semi-formal entrance to Honmaru Goten 本丸御殿, the main palace in Edo-jō 江戸城. It was situated at the east…

1　A generic term for a door connecting two areas of a structure.

2　A door in the…

A rain gutter placed at the bottom point where two roofs meet. Similar to *narabidō 双堂…

Also called nakazan 中桟. A middle rail. A horizontal rail or rails inserted into stiles tategamachi 竪框 and…

A vertical, finishing strip of wood placed between the threshold *shikii 敷居 and…

1　A private service-oriented room in the mansions of aristocrats, warriors, retired emperors, abbots and…

Also called sakuko 柵子, kakusaku 角柵, marutazaku 丸太柵. The stakes used to support the fencing set in…

Also called chūgomi 中込, nakazuke or chūzuke 中付. A middle layer of plaster applied between the…

An architectural element that is bent or has a concave mid-point. A diagonal brace, for example, if less than 90 cm wide,…

Also read chūjikii. Lit. "middle sill." A sill on a shelf that divides a closet into two parts, lower and upper.…

Also called nakashōji 中障子, yoshiwara shōji 吉原障子, takeshōji 竹障子, nakanukido 中抜戸 and …

Also written 中縦桟. A vertical stile placed at the mid-point of a paneled door. A centrally placed horizontal stile is called…

Also written 中壷. The inner court between shop and living quarters in a merchant's house in the Edo period.

Also written 中具. Secondary or intermediate supports placed in the interstices between the bracket complexes *…

A generic term for struts *tsuka 束 that are set at the mid-point between two…

Also namirenji 波連子, yumirenji 弓連子, tatewaki renji 立涌連子. A type of latticework renji…

Western painting brought by the Portuguese and Spanish who arrived in Japan in the 16th century, nanban bijutsu…

Lit. "Southern barbarian art." Considered to be the first manifestation of direct Western influence on Japanese culture,…

The Southern and Northern Court period (1336-92). It takes its name from two separate antagonistic Imperial courts supported…

1　A store room in which clothes and valuables could be kept in the houses of the civil, ecclesiastical and…

The Nara period (645-794). In 645 a coup to restore Imperial authority was carried out by Prince Naka no Ōe 中大兄 (later,…

Also sudare shōji 簾障子. Sliding screens *shōji 障子, that are…

Also called nawakakesan or nawakakezan 縄掛桟, also pronounced nawakakezan. Lit. "rope-hanging beam…

Also called medake 女竹; ganchiku 含竹, shinobedake しのべ竹 or naedake 苗竹. Thin bamboo…

Lit. "root stone."

1　Also soko-ishi 底石 (base stone), chizen-ishi 地全石, dodai-…

A floor joist. A horizontal structural member made of cypress, cedar or pine, laid on a sleeper *…

A ceiling made over the first floor of a two story building. The ceiling has joists above it which form the structural base…

Horizontal supports which receive floor joists. Also called *ōbiki 大引.

Also called *manekihijiki 招肘木. A small bracket arm, a…

Lit. "root fetters." Also called umekasenuki 埋械貫, nekasenuki 根械貫, negaraminuki 根がらみ貫. Large flat…

Also *magoshōji 孫障子. A small sliding panel set within a standard…

Also nekoza 猫座; nekogi 猫木. A short piece of wood projecting from the upper part of a pillar or from the…

Also nezutsumi 根包. A wrap made of spaced wooden slats bound together with rope or metal strips, ornamented metal…

Era name. The practice of naming eras originated in China when the first era name, Jian wu (Jp: Kengen 建元), was given to the…

Also jibutsu 持仏 and uchibotoke 内仏. A Buddhist image which is kept at close proximity for personal daily…

The date of production of a work of art. Nenki are often accompanied by the signature of the artist shomei…

A mud fence (a type of earthen wall *dobei 土塀) constructed with…

Also nezubashiri, tokami 椙. Also called jiku-ukemagusa 軸受まぐさ. A horizontal timber with a…

A flat wooden device placed between the top of a post and under the timber flooring of a log storehouse *…

1　The audience's entrance at a theater or place of entertainment during the Muromachi period. Even when the…

Also nisei kidan 二成基壇. A stepped podium with two layers. The upper layer is called *…

A double-layered non-penetrating tie beam with the upper layer often as thick as the lower one. These are found as base tie…

Also called kakemonokugi 掛物釘. A type of hooked nail *orekugi 折釘. A…

Two-tiered transverse beams with struts between them to form part of a roof framework. The upper transverse beam is about…

A framework used especially in temples and shrines to sustain the roof. It is composed of double rainbow beams *…

A roof framework in which only smaller bearing blocks *makito 巻斗 are placed on…

A transverse tie beam positioned between the ceiling of the first storied and the floor of the second storied of a building…

1　A defined open space, as distinct from the natural landscape, and reserved for work of an agricultural…

Also *ara-ishi 荒石. An unprocessed stone, a rough stone, an unrefined…

An unplanned, unfinished rough timber. Generally the timbers are split with a wedge and not processed any further.

1　A prefix attached to the name of a structural member to indicate that the member is not visible.…

1　In a general sense nobe means the entire length of any timber used in construction.

…

Also nobeto 延べ斗. A rectangular bearing block that is wider than usual and supports a corner bracket arm *…

Lit. "ascendance; to go up; rise."

1　A sloping line or surface and the measurements of these surface…

The sleeve or curb stones that slant along each side of the stone steps leading up to a podium *…

Lit. "rising beam," "raking beam."

1　Also *noboriki 登木 or…

Gable coping or raking coping. Coping, a protective covering, provided on sloping areas or edges such as on a gable roof *…

Also pronounced noborigi. Also called *noboribari 登梁.

1　…

Also called sobanoki 傍軒. Also called raking beams. The inclined eaves along the edge of the bargeboards *…

Also called keisha uragō 傾斜裏甲, or raking eaves filler. Hidden eave fillers attached to a bargeboard *…

A Noh stage. A stage originally constructed for outdoor performances of *Noh 能, a…

Hidden rafters. Rafters used to construct the roof framework of the main roof of a Japanese building. Hidden rafters have a…

Beams used in a hidden roof framework *noyane 野屋根. Also refers to any beam which is…

Hidden roof framework above a ceiling or above an exposed roof framework.