A board which is placed on the host's mat *temaedatami 点前畳,…

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 *…

Architecture introduced at temples of the Ōbaku 黄檗 sect, in the Edo period. This sect is one of the three Zen 禅 sects. The…

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…

Lit. "belt compound." A long narrow castle compound. Obiguruwa were often constructed on the top of an earthen…

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…

Lit. "falling stone." Also pronounced otoshi-ishi. One of the trump stones *…

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

Also kiriotoshi 切落.

1　A generic term for a floor that is lower than the main floor of a…

A design incorporating a projection from a major building with a roof ridge *mune…

Lit. "dropped ceiling." Also called otoshitenjō 落し天井. A ceiling in a tea ceremony room above the host's mat *…

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.…

1　 Lit. "great door." Also called *ōdoguchi 大戸口. The door…

1　The main entrance to traditional vernacular houses *minka 民家…

Also pronounced ōga. A ripsaw thought to have been introduced to Japan from China at the beginning of the 15th…

Lit. "big fence." Large, continuous fences in distinction to short screen fences *…

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

The roof tiles positioned like hands joined in prayer covering the triangular framework of a Japanese roof structure. Broad…

A peak tile. A semi-cylindrical, elongated, barrel-shaped, hanging tile which covers the broad, concave, eave-end tiles *…

Lit. "male tile." Also written 雄瓦, called *fusegawara 伏瓦, tsutsugawara…

Lit. "male tile." A semi-cylindrical cover tile *marugawara …

Lit. "fan slope." Also ōgikōbai 扇勾配 or miyakōbai 宮勾配 (shrine slope). The concave pitch of a stone…

Also written 扇子の縄. A castle plan shaped like a folding fan wherein the fortifications are distributed on either side of the…

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

A pattern drawn on a wall on both sides of a type of post called *kentozuka…

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

Also called kageire ariotoshi 陰入蟻落; ōire arikake 大入蟻掛. A joint made to connect a purlin *…

Also written 追入 or 尾入. A dadoed or housed, angled T-joint, which is used to join beams to posts. A shallow square or…

Also written 皇子造. A style of construction used for a Shinto shrine sanctuary *honden…

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…

Lit. "hillcastle." Also termed kyūryō jōkaku 丘陵城郭.
1　A castle built on a hillock, oka…

A sukiya style *sukiya-zukuri 数寄屋造 bathhouse, yokushitsu…

Also written 御釜柱. A pillar which is erected opposite the main central support pillar *…

1　A room that abutted the earth-floored area *doma 土間, at its…

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

The arrangement of tea ceremony utensils in preparation for a tea ceremony. It is more rarely called okitsuke 置付.…

Also *tsukedoko 付床. An early type of removable alcove formed by placing a…

A lantern placed in the water or near the water's edge. These can be clearly viewed from rocks or a boat, and boats use them…

The part of a ceramic tea bowl decorated with pattern. When used in a tea ceremony, the okigata is positioned…

A portable brazier used for a tea ceremony. It is usually 42 cm square with a height ranging from 21-24 cm. The hearth bed…

The houses of procurers keeping teams of yūjo 遊女, female entertainers and prostitutes in the authorised pleasure…

The upper roof erected over storehouses, kura 倉, of the *dozō …

An oblique, housed (dadoed) and rabbeted scarf joint. The upper and lower pieces are exactly the same but reversed. The…

A pattern *mon'yō 文様, or mullion *kumiko…

Lit. "large scattered paving stones."
One type of round-stone paving *tama-…

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…

A structure named for its location behind the main hall of a Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine. Sometimes it is a…

A type of design pattern *mon'yō 文様 or mullion *…

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…

1　A general term for the final or innermost room of a *shoin 書院…

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. "large curve." An arrangement of stepping stones *tobi-ishi 飛石, laid in…

Lit. "main gable pendant." Also written 主懸魚, ogamigegyo 拝懸魚. A decorative gable pendant *…

Also read *daimon. Lit. large gate. A large gate that functions as the entrance…

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

A generic term for the main gates of an aristocratic dwelling. It applies especially to residences in the shinden…

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…

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

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

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 *…

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 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…

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,…

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