Lit. mirror piling. A method of masonry used for a stone wall *ishigaki 石垣.…

Also written 架橋 and 懸橋. A wooden bridge that spans a water-filled moat. Supported by posts, the bridge can be removed when a…

A type of defensive gateway barrier *umadashi 馬出, consisting of an earthen…

Also written 隠口. A hidden castle entrance.

1　A castle entrance *…

Kamae is an earthen embankment constructed so that it cannot be invaded by an enemy. It has the same meaning as *…

A settlement surrounded by a moat. The earliest enclosed settlement appeared about 2000 years ago and is associated with the…

A dry moat, usually with a V-shaped cross-section called *yagenbori 薬研堀. The…

Also karameteguchi 搦手口. Term used for the rear gate of a castle from the medieval period onward. Term used in…

Multiple barriers *umadashi 馬出, erected or naturally occurring…

Also read kasanarizaka. A type of warrior run *mushabashiri…

An arrowroot vine fortress. A temporary fortification that dates to the ancient period. Similar to a briar tree fortresses…

Also written 風子, 翳. Lit. shade. Walls, embankments, or plants used to prevent the enemy from seeing the activities inside a…

Sometimes also written 木戸. A castle door or gate. The entrance and exit to a medieval castle. A simpler structure than the…

Lit. tortoise shell stack. Also called roppōzumi 六法積; or hachi-no-su 蜂の巣 meaning honeycomb or bee hive. An…

A road, or entrance, that is constructed by cutting through mountainous or hilly terrain, leaving sharply hewed vertical…

A man-made, precipitous bank or steep bluff excavated while constructing a road through mountainous terrain *…

Lit. cut and inserted masonry. A type of stone wall *ishigaki 石垣 construction…

Ancient castle ruins in Western Japan. Rows of stones arranged on mountain slopes in Kyūshū 九州 and Western Japan, including…

Lit. tiger mouth. A castle entrance. An early modern term likening the castle gateway to the tooth and fang of a tiger,…

Lit. child castle. A branch castle. The main castle is called oyajiro 親城 (parent castle).

Lit. waist compound. In a mountain castle *yamajiro 山城, a…

Also termed koshimaki-ishigaki 腰巻石垣, a waist-bandstone wall. A stone wall built around the lower part of an earthen…

A small subsidiary tower. When a castle complex has two or more donjons, the largest is called *…

Staggered embankments. A castle-wall design where the left and right embankments *doi…

Also pronounced guri-ishi. Chestnut stones. Small stones (10-30 cm in diameter) that were used as packing or…

Also written 曲輪. The general term for a castle compound. In the medieval period, when a mountain castle *…

A crumbling wall. A type of stone fence *ishigaki 石垣 in which stones are…

Also read ijō and ijiro. A castle or fortification in which the castle lord resides on a daily basis…

1　A manor or palace, yakata 館, where a lord resides.

2　In the case…

A corner loophole or gunport. Loopholes made at a ninety-degree corner of a castle wall, rather than in a flat wall. The…

1　Fence. Read ki (also written 城) in the ancient period. A palisade of stakes aligned at regular…

Also read hasama. A loophole or porthole made in the wall of the keep, tower, or parapet to allow a castle to…

Lit. "loophole distribution." The number of loopholes per two meter (one ken 間) interval in a castle. Also refers…

A village castle. A medieval castle built in a low-lying village. Typically furnished with defensive installations.

Also termed seirō yagura 井楼櫓. A watch tower. Seirō were built from the Muromachi to the early…

1　Also read ishimon. A gate made almost entirely of stone, seen especially in Okinawa Prefecture.…

Also written 石墻門. Lit. "stone wall gate." A gate with either single or triple arch-like openings in a wall made of stacked…

A grass-covered earthen embankment *doi 土居. The embankment is shaped like a…

Lit. "four quarters piling." Also termed masugatazumi 桝形積 (square measuring box piling), and chikei-no-…

Also read edajiro 枝城. Also hajō 端城. Lit. "branch castle." A fortification, other than the main castle…

The process of castle construction, from site selection to the layout of the compound. Early modern military technicians…

Also termed kakubori 角堀 (a moat with squared off ridges), or unebori 畝堀 (the general term for a furrowed…

1　Edo period towns used as a stopping place by the Tokugawa 徳川 shoguns when they traveled outside the city…

A defensive square projection in a castle wall on one side of the castle entrance *…

Also termed sōgawa 総河, sometimes written 総側 or 総川, sōguruwa 総郭, 総曲輪. The enclosure that surrounds a town…

The outer moat of a castle that has two or more moats. Generally, the inner slope, nearer the castle, is steep while the…

Also termed sōtō tenshu 層塔天守. A multi-storied castle tower. A technically advanced tower employing the same careful…

Also read kado-ishi 角石. Lit. "corner stone." Long, rectangularly-hewn stones laid horizontally at the corners of a…

Lit. "corner tail stone." The stone that butts against the rear face tomozura 友面 of the corner stone *…

A castle entrance barrier *umadashi 馬出, erected at the corner of an…

A corner tower. Also written 角櫓. A timber-framed tower set on the corner of a castle wall where two stone walls jut out. In…

Moats dug in open areas some distance from a castle, to hinder the advance of enemy forces.

A sacrificial compound constructed in front of a main compound. A camp used to launch an attacking force. When a force moves…