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…

Also written 寂.
1　An idea of beauty particularly important in the tea ceremony and haiku 俳句…

Also written 盃面戸. Sometimes called goki 呉器 or gokibame 呉器羽目. The space created between small bearing…

A fence supported by posts along its rear side, usually with more than four posts per one bay. The facing boards are placed…

Also read shamon. Lit. "sand crest." The technique of making a pattern or design in sand or gravel. The creation of…

The junction points on a door or window frame where the top rail *kamigamachi…

The transverse beams placed in a row at right angle to the large header beams *kabuki…

A simple door made of vertical planks with horizontal cross members that are about as wide as the vertical ties placed…

1　A structural element or tenon that projects out from the end of a board, post, or beam. Such projecting…

A purlin-bearing bracket arm; one that is inserted into the small bearing blocks *makito…

Also read sankarado. Paneled entrance doors introduced from China in the 13th to 14th century. They are associated…

A nail that is bent in three tines at a ninety degree angle. Like the twice bent nail *…

Roof framework composed of struts separating three tiers of transverse beams, each proportionately shortened in length than…

Lit. "three, four, five." A large size right-angled carpenter's square, ōgane 大矩, with a ratio of 3:4:5 cm. The two…

Lit. "a pole or rod." Aiso written 棹.

1　A lapped rod joint. The stacked tenon *…

Also written 棹縁天井. A board and batten ceiling. A simple ceiling made of light weight boards laid in one direction over…

Lit. "plate-like bearing block." A relatively flat, wooden block set beneath the large bearing block *…

1　Monkey. The monkey is represented in kyōgen 狂言 by a masked and costumed figure. The monkey mask…

Also called sanbashigo 桟梯子. A ladder made of wood or bamboo placed in an almost vertical position to reach the…

Lit. "monkey head pent roof." A pent roof *hisashi 廂, with pentagonal members…

A ceiling characterized by battens with six sides that are not all the same size. It is similar to a *…

1　The pyramidal shaped top of a post on the handrail of a wooden bridge. If there is only a heavy base…

Lit. "monkey headpost." A general term for timber members of pentagonal cross-section, created by chamfering away the upper…

A string, or stringer. The boards set diagonally on each side of a staircase in order to receive the treads fumi-ita…

Also called sasarako bame 簓子羽目. A traditional type of weather board used to cover exterior walls. The overlapping…

A very small common type of memorial stupa that is made of bamboo-grass sasa 笹 and used in many parts of Japan.…

Also called sashibari 指梁. The short visible purlins that jut beyond the barge course *…

Also written 差肘木 or 指肘木. One or more bracket arms *hijiki 肘木, inserted into the…

Also called sashikake yane 差掛屋根 or sashidashi 差出. A pent roof, shed roof or lean-to roof covering an…

Also written 差木 or 挿木. A generic term for the joining of timbers at right angle by inserting one into the other, most often…

Short purlins *keta 桁, about the length of one bay, inserted into the bargeboards…

A short purlin *keta 桁, that extends from the second strut within a hidden roof…

Lit. "insert ridge." Also written 指棟. Short, exposed ridges *keshō munagi…

1　Equivalent to *inokosasu 豕扠首 in shrine and temple…

Also sashibari 指梁. The transverse beam which supports the triangular framework *…

The horizontal base on which the diagonal braces *sasuzao 扠首竿 are placed in the gable of a…

1　Diagonal braces *sasuzao 扠首竿, set on transverse beams *…

Flush or even surfaces. Surfaces that are on the same plane. For example, a threshold *shikii…

Also 扠首棹. The diagonal braces used to form the triangular frame in many gable pediments *…

Also keshōzuka 化粧束.

1　A short strut centered between the diagonal braces *…

Also called ōiya 覆屋 or *kusari-no-ma 鎖の間.

1…

Also written 脊. Lit. "back."

1　The convex side of a curved timber. The concave side is called the…

Also written 丈, 背. Lit. "depth or thickness." The distance between the underside and topside of timber, stones and…

Ch: Xiyuanyaji. Lit. "Elegant Gathering in the Western Garden." A pictorial subject depicting an imaginary literati party at…

Also written 清楼棚 or 西楼棚, sometimes called seinikaidana 西二階棚. Staggered shelves *…

Also called *dotome-ita 土留板, maku-ita 幕板. Palings, poling…

Lit. "stone Buddha." A Buddhist image made in rock or stone. The term sekizō 石造 (carving from stone) was used…

The execution of a construction project.

Working scale drawings, including plans, elevations, and roof structure, etc. They are enlarged drawings that show various…

Also called komisen 込栓. A pin, peg, key, cotter or dowel made of hardwood, usually oak or zelkova. It varies in…

Lit. "Warring States period." The period began with the outbreak of the Ōnin Wars (Ōnin no ran 応仁の乱, 1467-77) and…

Also called seridashi 迫出, seriage 迫上. Lit. "trap" or "trap door." A platform on which actors or some types…

Also setchū kenchiku 折衷建築. Architecture that became strongly influenced in the 14th-15th century by two new…

A method of preventing cracks in the heartwood *shinzai 心材 or jushin 樹心, of a…

Also shachihoko 鯱, 鯱鉾. Lit. "killer whale." Fish-shaped ornaments at both ends of a roof-ridge. Thought to be…

Dipper-shaped metal fixtures used to cover the extended cylindrical ends at the top and bottom of timber doors. After…

To notch, gouge out or scoop a section of a structural element. The term is used especially for grooves or channels into…

Volcanic tuff, or small volcanic detritus. Named for a valley, Shakutani 笏谷, in Fukui Prefecture, where it is found. It is…

Also sari, busshari 仏舎利. Sk: sarira, dhatu 駄都. The bones of the Buddha. After the death of Buddha…

1　Also known as goseden 五脊殿. A pyramidal *hōgyō-zukuri…

The texture or color of the finish applied to the surface of any visible structural member in the interior of a building.…

Also mizunuki 水貫. The penetrating beams that join and secure the floor studs *…

1　One fourth of a log or piece of lumber, or a 1/4 scale reduction of a structural element. For example,…

Also read sasaebashira. A generic term for stress bearing timbers that strengthen and secure the frame of a…

Also called ottate daruki 追立垂木, munashita ogamidaruki 棟下拝垂木, shigaya daruki 枝茅垂木, and shinkai…

Closely spaced, parallel rafters. If the underside of a rafter and the space between it and the next rafter are equal, thus…

An unintentional unevenness or irregularity in workmanship.

1　A square paving stone, panel or other structural element. When square paving stones or tiles are laid…

A pattern of square paving stones, tiles, or marquetry etc. Each piece is laid on the diagonal, so that all the meeting…

Structural members that slant inward in four directions. Examples include the corner pillars of some belfries *…

Various joinery techniques used to insert beams, bracket arms *sashihijiki 挿肘木 or upper…

Also called sara-ita 皿板. A sole plate. A flat level board placed on floor boards to form a base to erect posts or…

A wall plate. A beam placed on top of a wall. It supports the ends of transverse beams *…

Also formerly called shikimi 閾; also called shiki 敷, shikiri しきり or shikige しきげ. A…

Also called nijū chigaidana 二重違い棚. Double staggered shelves of the shoin style *…

Lime plaster used to coat walls, ceilings and earth floors *doma 土間. The word…