Large wooden shingles which are about 30 cm wide and are laid from the ridge to the eaves. Where the shingles need to be…

A load-bearing structural member. Refers to any structural element which supports the roof including pillars *…

Also called wadaruki 輪垂木. An open ceiling found in Buddhist temples of the Ōbaku 黄檗 sect. The architectural style…

Also called obisando 帯桟戸. A simple wooden door made of thin boards with rails at top and bottom and stiles, left…

Also obiki 尾引. Sleepers about 10 cm sq. that extend horizontally at right angle to posts that are erected on a sill…

A outer veranda constructed a step lower than the adjacent floor. It may also be constructed one step lower than a broad…

The junction point of a horizontal and diagonal structural member. For example, the point where the bottom of the hip rafter…

A tail rafter. A large rafter which usually extends through the second step of a 3-stepped bracket complex *…

Also called da-itabuki 駄板葺. A shingled roof which has bamboo battens and or stones to hold the shingles in place.…

Lit. "praying."
1　Structural elements arranged in such a way as to resemble the image of hands joined in…

Fan rafters. There are two arrangements: those that radiate from a center point on each side of the building; or those that…

A bottle strut *taiheizuka 大瓶束, with a sculptural decoration called …

A wall which is completely plastered so that the pillars or posts are not visible. This method is common for the…

1　A style or method of constructing a wall, in which the basic framework for plastering is made on the…

1　Charming, or delightful. An approach to the aesthetic indicating a carefree appreciation of objects and…

Shogun Ashikaga's 足利 book of tea ceremony implement arrangement, thought to have been written by Sōami 相阿弥 (1455-1525), a…

Also called tate-ezu 建絵図. A fold-up, three-dimensional plan drawn on paper, to show the interior of rooms assembled…

1　The interior or heart of something. The furthermost, innermost or ultimate space in a sequence of spaces…

An inner sanctuary. The part of a temple most remote from the main entrance. An example is the Keikyū-in 桂宮院, at Kōryūji…

Also called uketo 受斗. A bearing block, longer than but shaped very much like the *…

The depth or distance from front to rear of an object, piece of furniture, room, building, plot of land etc. It may be…

A general term for structural members that sustain pressure horizontally. Transverse beams *…

1　A gate mon 門, with multiple pillars with large intervals between them.
One example is…

Lit. "the front, surface, or exterior of something."
1　The front part of a house and the area around the…

Also *mune 棟, *munagi…

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

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

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…

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…

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

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

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

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…