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…

A widely used moat with sides that slope like an earthen embankment. The name is derived from the moat having a bottom with…

A guard tower set atop the corners of a castle's stone wall and other strategic positions overlooking the surrounding area.…

Also written 屋形城.

1　A structure that combines the daily living quarters of a mansion with the…

A mountain castle entrance. The entrance *koguchi 虎口 of a mountain…

Lit. "mountain castle." A castle built on a mountain to take advantage of the mountain's topography. One of the three main…

Lit. "mountain eye pounding and inserting piling." A dry construction method used to pile stones for a stone wall *…

A loophole for thrusting pikes and spears. Typically, they are installed in narrow locations beside main castle entrances…

A small castle or fortification built like a a country house or mansion yashiki 屋敷. In the middle ages, it usually…

An arrow loophole in a castle wall. Also sengan 箭眼. Characterized by a vertical opening about 45 cm high (1 …

Positive castle entrance or yang entrance. A generic term for various types of castle entrance *…

Also written 用害.

1　A place of strategic importance, having steep terrain that is easy to defend. In…

A lateral dry moat excavated crosswise in front of a mountain castle *yamajiro…

A side loophole of the *yarisama 鑓狭間 type for pike and spears. Typically…

Lit. "side arrow."

1　Attacking from the side. Also sokusha 側射, sokubō 側防. An…

Also written 横矢斜 and 横矢歪. Lit. "distorted rampart." A diagonal projection from a castle rampart. Used by defending troops to…

Also termed demasugata 出桝形. A defensive box-shaped courtyard *masugata…

Also written 横矢隅落. A diagonally cut-away corner of a castle tower, used to launch side attacks *…

A post set against a castle's sloping stone wall, at the same angle of incline, under the watch tower gate *…

A cul-de-sac compound. A long and narrow castle compound with only one gateway entrance which turns into a blind alley.…