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…

Lit. "inner horse exit." A defensive installation *umadashi 馬出 constructed to fortify the…

1　The inner moat of a castle that has two or more moats.

2　The moat dug on the…

Also read naikaku. Also called naijō 内城. An inner compound. Generally, it refers to the central…

Lit. "pounded and inserted stone joinery." The most common stone work technique used to build a dry construction castle wall…

Lit. "inner square box." A type of walled compound *masugata 桝形…

A type of loophole *sama 狭間. An opening in a wall for soldiers to…

A main castle gate *koguchi 虎口 with a small barrier or compound…

A castle entrance barrier. A small barrier or compound, built in front of a castle gate *…