1　The layer of plaster or paint applied to a wall to create the proper surface for the finishing coat *…

Also written 助枝窓. Also called nurisashimado 塗さし窓, nurinokoshimado 塗残し窓, kakisashimado 掻さし窓. A…

1　The lower corners of any beam cut at an angle.

2　The lower corners of the…

Also pronounced shitagi or kaboku. The lower of two or more joined timbers. Shitaki is the…

Lit. "girl sticking out her tongue." A mask used in kyōgen 狂言 plays and representing a young woman with her tongue…

Clapboard or weather board. Horizontal siding boards, laid in a slightly overlapping row.

Also called *jinuri 地塗り. A base coat. An undercoat applied during the…

The bottom rail of a door or gate door. The toprail is called uezurizan 上摺桟 or uebazuri 上端摺. The term …

The four pillars placed around the central pillar to form a square area on the first story of a pagoda. Four pillars also…

A fulcrum. The support point or prop upon which something can revolve. The point of load transfer from one structural…

Lit. "four guardian kings stones." Four stones placed in each corner of a garden. The stones serve the same apotropaic…

Four Guardian Kings. Pre-Buddhist Indian deities including *Taishakuten…

Lit. "Shitennōji 四天王寺 style"; also called Tachikawa-ryū 立川流. A school of carpenters during the Edo period. The…

A stone entrance gate *torii 鳥居 of the myōjin type *…

Lit. "four guardian king trees." A poetic title referring to the maiden-hair or gingko ichō 銀杏, camphor …

Painting where the tip of the finger or a long finger-nail is employed instead of a brush. Also called shiga 指画 (…

1　A generic term for timber shutters or doors that generally have vertical and horizontal lattice attached…

Also called hajitomi 半蔀 or *shitomi 蔀. Wooden shutters with crisscross…

The technique of keeping *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 print paper moist during…

Lit. "gem or precious stone base." The most common base for an image of *Fudō Myōō…

Wrinkled old man. A Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing a dignified,…

Rafter interval system. A measuring method begun in the mid-13th century used to determine the proportions of a building's…

Lit. "four leaves." Abbreviation of *shiyōza 四葉座. A decorative pattern carved…

Also read yotsubaza. A metal nailhead cover *kugikakushi 釘隠 with…

Also shiisō. Lit. "meditative posture." A position used in Buddhist images to symbolize thinking, where the fingers of the…

1　Catalogs of temples and temple properties compiled from the year 783 by various state-sponsored temples,…

Lit. "natural stone water basins." A generic name for a water basin *chōzubachi…

Lit. "natural stone bridge." A type of stone bridge *ishibashi 石橋 made from…

Also shichōkanzō 紙張貫像. A figure made from layers of glued paper. A number of paper Buddhist statues are preserved…

Ch: Zhong Liquan. One of the Daoist Eight Immortals *hassen 八仙. Originally a…

Also read setsu, also *ten 捻. An old word for modelling or molding often…

A special mat for one or more guests, shōban 相伴, who are companions to the guest of honor, shōkyaku…

Pictures of town fire-fighting units. These were first organized in 1719 and comprised construction workers and carpenters.…

The ridge on an undulating bargeboard, nokikarahafu 軒唐破風. Supported by beams called shōbugeta 菖蒲桁.

Also written 少仏師. The term first used in the early Heian period for Buddhist sculptors working in a team, subordinate to a…

A technique used to join the blocks in the center of a wooden sculpture made by the hollow joined block technique *…

Also pronounced seiden.

1　The center building of a palace, also called omotegoten…

Also seidō.

1　The fare hall or worshipper's hall of a temple, in contrast to the rear hall…

An ancient Chinese philosophy which holds that calligraphy and painting are two aspects of a single art that springs from…

The ornamentation of a Buddhist hall. A Buddhist statue made in a dignified and beautiful style by adding features such as a…

Also, pronounced shōbyōga (although rarely). Paintings on large surfaces of architectural structures. The term…

Lit. "paintings on screens 'shō 障' and walls 'heki 壁.'" Partition or interior wall painting, although…

Also daichō 台帳, daihon 台本. In the Kyoto-Osaka area kamigata 上方, it is often called *…

An Edo period novel which imitated the style of *kabuki 歌舞伎 stage books *…

The garden which faces or surrounds the *shoin 書院. No special features are used in shoin…

1　A large reception room developed in the Momoyama period, used by military leaders, daimyō …

One of Japan's most important residential architectural styles, shoin-zukuri was established in the Momoyama period…

Lit. "paintings on screens *shōji 障子." Shōji-e is a term…

Also called sōji, a term prevalent in the medieval age. A generic term for partitions that can divide the interior…

Also termed kakubori 角堀 (a moat with squared off ridges), or unebori 畝堀 (the general term for a furrowed…

1　An archaic term taken directly from the Chinese for a ceiling board. Usually,…

A Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing a good-luck sea sprite, fond of…

Also read seijōseki, called nozoki-ishi 覗石 or kiyome-ishi きよめ石. Lit. "pure stone."

…

Sk: Aryavalokitesvara. Also written 正観音. This is the term for the simplest form of *…

Ch: Zhuge Liang (181-234). Also known as Kongming (Jp: Kōmei 孔明). A counsellor to the Chinese Han emperor Liu Bei (Jp: Ryū…

Small-scale, close-up painting of landscapes. The scenes generally depict misty fields and rivers or lakes and may also…

Ch: Zhongkui. A god in the Chinese Daoist pantheon known as the Demon-queller, often depicted in sculpture and painting. A…

Also read sokuji-in (Sk: bhusparsa-mudra). Also gōma-in 降魔印. Earth-touching mudra. A type of hand…

Illustrations of people of various occupations in their workshops, which became popular in the Momoyama and early Edo…

Lit. "plants." The various plants, trees, bushes, and flowers placed in a garden. The term also is used to refer to gardens…

Lit. "clarification for the artisan-builder." The best known manual of construction and building design. It is based on oral…

The form of a work of art made for contemplation from the front. This style is often found in Japanese Buddhist sculpture…

Also known as Seishoku Daikongō Yasha 青色大金剛薬叉. A deity who protects against diseases believed to be caused by…

Also tsuyazuri つや摺 (lustre printing), and sometimes written 上面摺. Lit. "printing from the front." A printing…

Also written 勝南院座, 小南院座, 小波座. One of the painting studios or guilds, za 座 of the *…

Lit. "list of objects acquired and brought back." Lists and other records of Buddhist objects brought back to Japan from…

Also written 将来品. Buddhist implements, statues shōraibutsu 請来仏, or writings brought back to Japan by…

Also called shūrō; kanetsukidō 鐘突堂, lit. "bell hitting hall"; and tsuriganedō 釣鐘堂, belfry. A…

Also read shūrōmon. A two-storied temple gate in which a bell is hung, often found in Tendai 天台 sect temples. A…

A hall dedicated to the soul of Shōtoku Taishi (see *Shōtoku Taishi-zō 聖徳太子像) at…

Also shosaijiku 書斎軸 or saijiku 斉軸. Associated with *shigajiku …

Enlarged drawings that render particular parts of a building in minute detail. This includes complete sectional, partial,…

Lit. "small shaku 尺." An ancient unit of length. Introduced in the Taihōryō 大宝令 codes of 701, it measured 29.6 cm,…

Meaning genuine tree. The term was coined in the middle Edo period to refer to the dominant or master tree in a garden.…

Ch: Xiaoxiang bajing. Lit. "Eight views of the Xiao and the Xiang." The eight designated scenes of the area around…

Also called Sōen-in 倉垣院. A treasure storehouse *hōko 宝庫 with a raised floor at…

Originally, a waterfall in nature. With the rise of dry waterfalls *karetaki…

Idealized portraits in sculpture and painting made for the worship and reverence of Shōtoku Taishi 聖徳太子 (ca. 574-…

*Mandara 曼荼羅 (mandala) of the Sutra for Praying for Rain. A variety…

A square pedestal used in portraits of seated high-ranking Buddhist priests. It is usually a simple square dais supported by…

Ch: Shangshan sihao. A pictorial subject depicting four elderly sages who fled from the turbulent society of the…

Ch: Zhu Maichen. A Chinese Han dynasty woodcutter so enamored with learning that he read as he carried bundles of firewood…

Ch: Zhou Maoshu (1017-73). A well-known Confucian scholar of the Northern Song Dynasty, depicted in a tradition of imaginary…

Vermilion. An intense orange-red pigment *ganryō 顔料 made of…

Lit. "deer's tail." A type of brush, originally made from a deer's tail attached to a handle. The shubi's practical…

Lit. "master tree." The tree planted on the top, front of a garden hill *tsukiyama…

A satin textile woven with colored woofs to form a pattern, originating in Ming China. As more than seven colors were used,…

The upper and lower rim on a broad, concave, eave-end tile *nokihiragawara…

Lit. "guardian tree." One name given to the main tree planted in the middle of a flat garden hiraniwa 平庭. The term…

Lit. "seed syllable mandala." A mandala *mandara 曼荼羅 in which the deities are…

A measure of height for a Buddhist statue based on shūjaku 周尺, a unit of measure used in Zhou dynasty China (1 …

Ten Categories of Collected Antiquities, a late Edo period illustrated catalog of old art objects edited by the…

Ch: Zhougong Dan. The virtuous Duke of Zhou 周公 (Ch: Zhougong; Jp: Shūkō), the son of King Wen 文王 (Ch: Wen Wang; Jp: Bun Ō)…

Also read Shūkongōjin. Also called Kongōshu 金剛手, Jikongō 持金剛, *…

A type of settlement or township which developed along major trunk roads during the medieval and early modern periods,…

A guild of Buddhist sculptors active in Nara (see *nanto busshi 南都仏師) in…

1　Edo period towns used as a stopping place by the Tokugawa 徳川 shoguns when they traveled outside the city…

Lit. "shrunken scenery." The imitation of a famous scenic spot meisho 名所 in a garden through the creation of a…

A vernacular house *minka 民家, in the style known as *…

1　A term for a style of vernacular residence *minka 民家, with…