A row of urban vernacular buildings *machiya 町家, directly facing the street at…

A layout of urban vernacular residences *machiya 町家, found during the Edo…

Also read ōmunekado. A large gate that is similar to another type of gate called *…

Also *mune 棟, *munagi…

A book containing excerpts from *kabuki 歌舞伎 plays, used by…

The second layer of a plastered wall. The first layer of a plastered wall is made of a rough clay-sod or mud-plaster mixture…

A generic term used from the Muromachi through the Edo periods to indicate facilities provided for the visit of a shogun to…

Lit. "a visitor's garden." A garden at an aristocratic dwelling, located at the entrance for royalty, shogun and noblemen.…

A visitor's or regent's gate. A type of *yakuimon 薬医門 or *…

A preliminary roughing plane. The oni-arashiko ganna has only a single cutting blade, expressed as ichimaiganna…

A wooden board or an undecorated tile used in place of ogre face tiles *onigawara鬼瓦 at each…

Also called onigawaradai 鬼瓦台, oni-itadai 鬼板台. The base material on the ridge ends of the main roof of…

Lit. "goblin-tile."

1　The generic name for decorative roof tiles found at the ends of a main ridge *…

A dance piece in *bugaku 舞楽 and the mask *…

A type of saw horse on which to place timber so that a carpenter can cut it easily. Two posts are sunk directly into the…

Onna-e (feminine painting) is a most maligned term that invites various interpretations, some even contradictory.…

Noh masks *nōmen 能面 representing women. This category divides broadly into three…

An ax. The ax has existed since the Stone Age, and was one of the earliest implements used by man. Its design was improved,…

Sometimes written 斧始め. Also te-onohajime 手斧始, katanahajime 刀始. A ceremony performed when an artist is…

Lit. "a big eave." An eave made of long base rafters *jidaruki 地垂木, which is…

A small, 2 × 2 1/2 bay private Buddhist hall (1685?) at Katsura Rikyū 桂離宮, Kyoto. The hall has a tiled roof *…

Noh masks *nōmen 能面 of ghosts and spirits. Although all the …

An archaic term for a tie beam roughly 3.6 m long by 11 cm wide by 2.5 cm thick. Cedar or cypress were commonly used. Now…

Lit. "extra large format." A size of *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 print. The term ōōban…

A type of hooked nail made from one piece of iron. It is bent at a right angle and is square in cross section. The name is a…

A coved and coffered ceiling. The coved part has curved struts. It surrounds the coffered ceiling and at the same time…

A coved, coffered and finely latticed ceiling. When the height of a ceiling of the same type is increased by curved struts…

A coved ceiling. A ceiling raised by diagonally placed straight timbers *shirin…

A small lantern used to light pathways. It is baseless and inserted directly into the earth. On top is a spherical jewel *…

A wall space allotted for hanging a scroll rather than a true alcove. It is characterized by a smoothly planed board, 15-20…

An entrance to the guest's seat in a tea ceremony room. The size is between that of a noblemen's entrance *…

A castle wall that is undulates with indentations and protrusions. It is designed to allow for the strategic placement of…

Also called monokakemado 物掛窓. A type of rustic window *shitajimado…

Oribe 織部 ware. Produced mainly from 1600 to the 1630s, this high-fired pottery juxtaposing rich fluid glazes with abstract…

Lit. "folded paper."
1　An appraisal of an artwork written on paper usually folded in half and placed in…

Also jōsōbon 帖装本 and orijō 折帖 or jō 帖. Ch: zheben (Jp: shōhon 摺本). An…

Lit. "spiral well with shade tree." A tree planted near a spiral well *oriido 下り井戸 so that it…

Lit. "descending well." A deep well. It is also called spiral well rasei 螺井, or snail well maimai ido…

Also orioki 折置. Method of assembly in a building's structural frame. A method of fixing a transverse beam *…

A loophole in a wall *oribei 折塀 that zigzags back and forth like a folding screen *…

A plastered sliding door on a storehouse, kura 蔵. During the early 17th century they became heavy and thick,…

Fabric pictures. Representations of figures, birds, animals, flowers, landscapes or characters of a poem that are cut out of…

1　A low four-legged table used in the Kamakura and early Muromachi periods in upper class priestly and lay…

Lit. "pushing frame." The horizontal bars to which the vertical slats *tateko…

Also tsuichōbutsu 鎚ちょう仏. A repose relief depicting Buddhist deities (and the technique involved). Usually small,…

Lit. "the plum tree where the warbler dwells." A painting subject inspired by an episode in the 10th-century tale in …

Also written 男末.
1　A writing and service room for servants responsible for household chores in either…

Also *otabisho 御旅所. Otabi 御旅 (revered journey); sho 所 (space); shinden…

Also otabi-no-miya 御旅宮, otabi 御旅, tabisho 旅所, mikoshiyadori 神輿舎.
A palanquin-like…

Also okame おかめ, ofuku お福, otogoze 乙御前, and *sanpei…

A decorative diamond pattern created by a series of indented curved lines. Occasionally the pattern is used for mullions *…

Also pronounced ōdan, ōni. A deep yellow color, produced by dyeing yellow gardenia *…

Also written 追手.
The front of a castle or fortification. Contrast with karamete 搦手 (the rear of a castle…

The front gate of a castle. Derive from *ōte 大手, the front of a castle or…

The red-painted front gate, 5 x 2 bays with three entrances that provided access from the south to enter the *…

Also otogoze 乙御前. A mask of a young woman, used in kyōgen 狂言 plays. Oto has a fat, dimpled face…

Also tobide 飛出. A Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing the God of…

Popular stories which flourished from the late Kamakura to the early Edo period. The name derives from an early 18th-century…

Also masugami otoko 十寸髪男. Noh masks *nōmen 能面 of male…

Noh masks *nōmen 能面 representing men. These realistic portrayals…

A pictorial subject taken from "Otome" ("The Maiden"), Chapter 21 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale of Genji…

A simple style of main shrine building *honden 本殿, with gable roof *…

Also called sagekama 下鎌. A commonly used half-blind, gooseneck tenon *kama…

Also known as oiwake-e 追分絵, derived from place names on the outskirts of Ōtsu. Small paintings produced for…

Also called yarai 矢来, yaraigaki 矢来垣, chōsengaki 朝鮮垣, and chōsen yarai 朝鮮矢来…

An abbreviation of ki-ōtsushibari 黄大津縛. A yellow clay applied about 4-5 cm thick in order to hide and protect the…

The handle of a tea scoop *chashaku 茶杓, used to prepare powdered green…

1　The wife of a member of the upper classes and her living chambers. The term, used in the Muromachi period…

Neocene quartz. A type of soft volcanic tuff that is rough, porous and easily worked. It is a light, bluish greenish brown…

Also *yūjo-e 遊女絵. The term used in Osaka for pictures of…

Lit. "big armor." The most formal type of armor for high-ranking samurai 侍, it was loose-fitting defensive…

A room connected to the *oyudono 御湯殿 where utensils for the emperor's meals were kept.…

1　A north room in the western pent-roof structure *hisashi 廂…

1　The board-floor veranda at the top of the steps of a shrine building. The veranda at the bottom of the…

Also called yuya 湯屋, yokushitsu 浴室, onshitsu 温室. A bathhouse. Traditionally, a separate…

1　A shell, especially mother-of-pearl, inlay technique commonly used for lacquer ware *…

Ch: Luofuxian. The story and pictorial theme of an immortal on Mt. Luofu 羅浮山 (Jp: Rafusen) and the spirit…

Spiral shaped curls of hair, like snail-shells, on the head of a *nyorai…

Also *haiden 拝殿. A worship hall for Shinto shrine visitors. The plan…

Also called raihaidō 礼拝堂. A worship hall. When Buddhist temples were constructed during the 7th-8th century,…

Two or four-circular pillars right and left at each corner of the Buddhist altar to define the most sacred place in a temple…

Lit. "Amida with welcoming descent mudras." A figure of *Amida 阿弥陀 with hand…

Lit. "welcoming mudra." A mudra or hand gesture *in 印 in which the forefinger,…

Also called raigō-heki. A clay or wooden wall erected behind a Buddhist altar *…

Painted images of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, such as *Shaka 釈迦, *…

Lattice arranged in a fret pattern, used especially on railings of balconies.

Lit. "lightning pattern." Also read ikazuchimon いかずち文. A pattern of thick and thin zig-zag lines. A variation of *…

Ch: Lanzan weiyu 懶瓚煨芋. A Zen 禅 (Ch: Chan) painting subject depicting the late 8th century Chinese Zen priest Lanzan…

Arhat. Ch: luohan, Sk: arhan. Abbreviation of arakan 阿羅漢, a translation of the Sk. term arhan…

An abbreviation of the term rakusei kanshiki 落成款識. Lit. "inscription cast into ancient bronze vessels at…

Paintings of scenes in and around Kyoto. Famous sites, festivals and activities within the capital rakuchū 洛中…

Also written 楽書. Graffiti or scribblings. The earliest examples in Japan are the scribblings in the margins or on the backs…

Raku 楽 ware. A light weight ceramic ware developed in Kyoto in the Momoyama period and particularly prized in the…

A net-like ornament strung with jewels or precious metals and hung from the canopy *…

Ch: lanyemiao. Lit. "orchid-leaf drawing." A style of ink-painting using fluid, modulated lines that resemble the…

A transom. A rectangular opening, longer in the horizontal direction, constructed between the lintels *…

Also called no-ishizumi 野石積. Stones with an irregular shape. Those that are somewhat square are called nozura-…

Also referred to as ranzumi kidan 乱積基壇, ranzō ransekizumi 乱層乱石積, kuzure ishizumi くずれ石積 or simply…

Also *ranzumi 乱積. Piling up unhewn rocks or random masonry. The earliest and…