Also sari, busshari 仏舎利. Sk: sarira, dhatu 駄都. The bones of the Buddha. After the death of Buddha…

Reliquary. A container for the bones of the Buddha *shari 舎利 placed in a stupa or pagoda. In…

A square reliquary hall, used to enshrine the relics of Buddha, called *shari 舎利…

A stupa-shaped container for relics *shari 舎利 that may itself be set within a small shrine …

Realistic sketches of nature made for study purposes, often in small handscroll format and later mounted in an album. The…

A seal used for private as opposed to official matters. The use of shi-in became popular in China after the Tang…

A subsidiary temple belonging to the main temple and serving as the founder's mausoleum. This arrangement is most frequently…

Also written 支. An ancient unit used to count long, slender objects. Remaining from this ancient system is the expression *…

1　Also known as goseden 五脊殿. A pyramidal *hōgyō-zukuri…

A special finishing plane. A plane used in the final stage of smoothing wood after the surface has been flattened with the…

The texture or color of the finish applied to the surface of any visible structural member in the interior of a building.…

Ch: siai. Lit. "the four favorites." A painting subject of four beloved flowers and the four Chinese literati who…

Ch: Sima Guang (1019-86); also called Sima Wenguan (Jp: Shiba Onkō 司馬温光), and used the name Junshi (Jp: Kunjitsu 君実). A…

A grass-covered earthen embankment *doi 土居. The embankment is shaped like a…

Also read shibakaki. A very old type of brushwood fencing, originally called fushigaki 布斯垣. Many…

Lit. "ranking lists of plays." A generic term for a *kabuki 歌舞伎 playbill. A…

Lit. "Sima Yungong type." One style of natural stone water basin *…

A pictorial subject taken from the *kabuki 歌舞伎 play by the same…

Also mizunuki 水貫. The penetrating beams that join and secure the floor studs *…

Lit. "brushwood mountain." A type of rustic water basin *chōzubachi…

One of the three painting studios or guilds za 座 of the *nanto-…

Also written 鵄尾, 蚩尾, 鮪; also called tobi-no-o 鴟の尾, kutsugata 沓形 (shoes tile) because it is thought to…

Tie dye. A name for a resist-dyeing technique and the fabric made by it. Shibori 絞 designates a huge variety of…

1　One fourth of a log or piece of lumber, or a 1/4 scale reduction of a structural element. For example,…

Lit. "the Four Buddhas."

1　The first four Buddhas said to have appeared during the current era of…

Lit. "Seven Buddhas of Healing." Seven manifestations of *Yakushi 薬師 or the…

The seven principal buildings considered necessary for a Buddhist temple from the 7-12th century. They include: the main…

Lit. "the seven gods of good fortune." The group comprises *Ebisu 恵比須, *…

Also called shichigosan ishigumi 七五三石組 Lit. "seven-five-three-style garden." The arrangement of 15 stones or pruned…

A Buddhist sculpture workshop *bussho 仏所 located in Kyoto's…

A Buddhist sculpture workshop *bussho 仏所 located in Kyoto's…

A style of Shinto shrine architecture originating in the Edo period, similar to the sengen style *…

Lit. "seven leaves." A decoration in the shape of seven petals, used on a gable pendant *…

Ch: jiuniaotu. Lit. "pictures of eagles and hawks." A painting subject that features eagles and hawks but may…

Also read sasaebashira. A generic term for stress bearing timbers that strengthen and secure the frame of a…

A decorative motif that is characterized by a central flower pattern surrounded by either a flower or leaf pattern that is…

Lit. "shinden-style garden." The quintessential Heian period garden that was built in the central courtyard of…

A mortuary hall. One example is the rear part of the *Kaisandō 開山堂 at Eihōji…

An old name for purple pigments *ganryō 顔料 and dyes senryō…

Also called ottate daruki 追立垂木, munashita ogamidaruki 棟下拝垂木, shigaya daruki 枝茅垂木, and shinkai…

A hanging scroll with a literary inscription written above an ink painting. This format is a visual extension of the ancient…

1　Also shigami 獅噛 (biting lion), or hagami 歯噛 (biting teeth). A Noh mask *…

Shigaraki 信楽 ware. Sueki 須恵器 ware was made in this clay-rich area from early times, but a distinctive ware fired in…

Closely spaced, parallel rafters. If the underside of a rafter and the space between it and the next rafter are equal, thus…

An unintentional unevenness or irregularity in workmanship.

An angled joint. There are two general types of shiguchi.

1　watashigake shiguchi…

Lit. "drizzle fence." A type of fence in which bunches of bamboo and bush clover are secured by the top bar of a fence so as…

1　A square paving stone, panel or other structural element. When square paving stones or tiles are laid…

A pattern of square paving stones, tiles, or marquetry etc. Each piece is laid on the diagonal, so that all the meeting…

A dovetail splicing joint *aritsugi 蟻継, made in such way that the dovetails…

Structural members that slant inward in four directions. Examples include the corner pillars of some belfries *…

Lit. "Buddhas of the four directions water basin." A type of water basin made from reused objects *…

A paper support for painting or calligraphy.

Various joinery techniques used to insert beams, bracket arms *sashihijiki 挿肘木 or upper…

Lit. "four quarters piling." Also termed masugatazumi 桝形積 (square measuring box piling), and chikei-no-…

A pictorial subject taken from "Shiigamoto" ("Beneath the Oak"), Chapter 46 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale…

Ch: si'erhu. A jar with four lug handles (loop ears) around the mouth or neck of the jar, the handles may be round…

Also read edajiro 枝城. Also hajō 端城. Lit. "branch castle." A fortification, other than the main castle…

Lit. "pictures of the riverbed at fourth avenue Shijōgawara 四条河原." Shijōgawara was the amusement center of Kyoto…

Also written 仕懸本. A type of book which flourished during the Bunsei 文政 and Tenpō 天保 eras (1818-1844) and contained …

An abbreviation for *shikamibori 顰彫. Formerly also written shikami 獅噛. The…

Often abbreviated as *shikami 顰. The gouged-out or indented part of a moulding *…

Also ikka shiken 一花四間. A type of decorative flower pattern painted on coffered ceilings. Coffers *…

Also written 四厥, also kongōketsu 金剛厥. Lit. "four pickets." A set of four posts, put up at each corner of a…

Paintings of the four seasons. The term designates representations of Japanese landscapes, flora, and people engaged in…

A stone-cutting technique for paving stones. According to certain tea ceremony sources various sized stones were used for…

Paintings of birds and flowers representative of each of the four seasons. Most often these comprise a set of screens on…

A mandala produced for a specific ceremony or ritual use. Lit. "*mandara 曼荼羅…

Also called sara-ita 皿板. A sole plate. A flat level board placed on floor boards to form a base to erect posts or…

Also *ushibari 牛梁, nakahikibari 中引梁, ushihikibari 牛引梁, …

Also written 色代の間. A room or building that projects from (or adjacent and linked by galleries to) the rear of the main…

Also written 色代.

1　A low broad step or platform of timber, which had become a standard feature of the…

1　Also written 甃. Also called *shikihiragawara 敷平瓦, shikihira…

A wall plate. A beam placed on top of a wall. It supports the ends of transverse beams *…

Also nokishikigawara 軒敷瓦. An under-tile. A broad, concave tile laid underneath a broad concave eave-end pendant…

Also formerly called shikimi 閾; also called shiki 敷, shikiri しきり or shikige しきげ. A…

Also called *koshikake 腰掛.
A bench joint. A flat surface in…

The bulging sphere which is below the lotus petals *renben 蓮弁 in the narrow…

The transfer of a deity, goshintai 御神体, from a permanent building to a temporary one *…

Also called nijū chigaidana 二重違い棚. Double staggered shelves of the shoin style *…

Lit. "partition gate." A gate that partitions or closes off one area from another. Two examples of partition gates are found…

Dyes and pigments. A collective name for all insoluble pigments *ganryō 顔料 and…

Thick colored square sheets of paper used for calligraphic poems or paintings. During the mid-Heian and Kamakura periods,…

Also called kakuban 角判. Lit. "poem card format." A size of *ukiyo-e…

Colored, square-shaped paper inscribed with verses, then cut and pasted onto the upper portion of large screens and sliding…

Lit. "poetry paper windows." *Shikishi 色紙 refers to the square paper on which short poems…

Lime plaster used to coat walls, ceilings and earth floors *doma 土間. The word…

Paintings produced for general sale rather than upon the specific request of a patron. These works are therefore comparable…

A purple dye senryō 染料 made from the roots of the perennial plant Gromwell (Lithospermum erythrorhizon…

1　A generic term for a roof line that has a broken plane, the parts of which run in the same direction. A…

A pent-roof addition to a main building whose roof is at a lower level than main roof.

Also called shikoroyane 錣屋根. A method of constructing a hip-and-gable roof on separate planes. The gable is…

Ch: sijunzi. Lit. "four gentlemen." A Chinese flower-painting theme that features depictions of plum ume 梅…

Also an old name read yotsuashimon and sometimes written 四足門; also called ikken-ikkomon 一間一戸門. A four-…

Lit. "arrangement of branch and leg stones." One way to arrange the five types of trump stones known as *…

1　The secondary or collateral lintel placed against the underside of the top lintel *…

An expression used to refer to any entrance gate at a Shinto shrine *torii 鳥居…

A stain on paper or silk. Generally caused by moisture or mold. The result is a discolored or brownish spot on the surface…

A gate located opposite the Shimizu 清水 moat (rebuilt 1658 ) at Edo-jō 江戸城, constructed in the *…

The lowest story of a two or more storied structure.