Also written 外隈. Lit. "exterior shading."

1　A shading *…

The exterior measurements of architectural members. The term applies to any outside measurement whether it is the length,…

Lit. "princess whose beauty shines through her clothing." The popular name for the concubine of Emperor Ingyō 允恭 (412-…

Outer tea garden. The section of the double teagarden nijū roji 二重露地 closest to the entrance gate, sotorojimon…

Also sozō 塑像, shōzō 摂像, deizō 泥像. Formerly also called *…

A common type of mud-packed fence with timber posts that are exposed on the exterior side. The posts are set one bay *…

Also written 滑り腮. Also *shikimen 敷面. This term refers to both the upper and lower sides of a…

The name of the groove cut several centimeters from the bottom of one of two posts erected on each side of an opening into…

Also called kōshibuta 格子蓋.

1　A lid or cover made for a cut-out in the floor of a kitchen…

Also called su 簾, *misu 御簾, and osu 小簾. Matchstick blinds.…

Reed ceiling. Also sudarebari tenjō 簾張天井. A ceiling covered in a mesh made from solid stems of bamboo …

Also sudaresama. A transom *ranma 欄間, with openwork…

Lit. "latticed door gate." A type of garden gate which features lattice, or basket-work of split bamboo. Varieties include…

The smaller end of a log. The larger end is called motoguchi 元口.

A pictorial subject matter based on "Suetsumuhana" ("Safflower"), Chapter 6 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale…

1　A roof with bargeboards of different sizes. Usually the front bargeboard, which extends from the ridge…

Also written 椙. A white or red Japanese cedar tree, also called cryptomeria. Japanese cedar is an excellent and widely used…

Paintings directly executed on sliding doors made of cryptomeria wood *sugido 杉戸 which…

Also called sugishōji 杉障子. Doors made of Japanese cedar. Sugido constructed in the shoin style *…

Buildings roofed with cedar bark shingles which resemble cypress bark roofing *…

Bargeboards that have straight lines instead of the usual curves. There are two curved types: *…

Also written 須浜鬼瓦, also suhamagata onigawara 州浜形鬼瓦 or suhama 州浜. A dumbbell-shaped tile that is bent in…

Also suhama 州浜. A shape made up of three rings. Used in garden design and landscape paintings. An imitation of a…

A dais *daiza 台座 for a Buddhist image that is shaped like a sand…

Also wake わけ. An aesthetic ideal of the Edo period merchant class in the Kamigata 上方 (Osaka-Kyoto) region implying…

Lit. "garden in the style of ink monochrome landscape painting." A modern term used for Chinese style dry gardens *…

Ch: shuimohua. Also, in Japan, bokuga 墨画 or more colloquially sumi-e 墨絵. Lit. "water-ink painting…

Four decorative metal pieces attached at right angle to the metal sheathing that covers the tapered extended central pillar…

Also read sugiharagami and abbreviated to suihara or sui. Handmade Japanese paper *…

Also yokokajū 横荷重. A lateral load. A structural element that carries horizontally the weight of a load. The…

Suihei means water level or horizontal; also a perpendicular or vertical line made by ink dispensed by the string…

Also suihatsu. Lit. "hanging hair." Long hair gathered into two sections which hang down behind the ears. The…

Lit. "trace manifestation." The equivalent for *kami 神 (god), in the pairing of…

The Suiko period. A now rarely-used name for the Asuka period *Asuka jidai…

Lit. "drunken Persians," referring to Suikoō 酔胡王 (the Drunken Persian King) and his followers, suikojū…

Lit. "water ring." The spherical second story of the five-ring pagoda *gorintō…

Suirinbashira are the outer circle of pillars that divide the exterior pillars from the core *…

Lit. "water-dropper." A small container used to hold the water which is added to the inkstone *suzuri…

Also arizan 蟻桟, suitsukizan 吸付桟 or suitsukiari 吸付蟻. A long, narrow dovetail tenon *…

Also kugibori 釘彫. A technique used to copy the lines of an underdrawing. A sharp-edged tool is used to press the…

Diagonal bracing set between the major posts that form the framework of a building wall. Their purpose is to strengthen and…

A carpentry gauge used to mark accurate, parallel lines on pillars, door frames and planks, or to accurately redraw the…

Also called *kurinuki kaerumata 刳抜蟇股. A frog-leg strut that is…

Also called sukashi-ita ranma 透板欄間, sukashi ranma 透欄間, itabori ranma 板彫欄間 and sukashikumi…

Openwork. A method of decoration in which a design is cut out of a plain surface. While sukashibori refers to…

Lit. "see-through fence." A generic term for any kind of fence through which one can see. This type of open fence is used as…

The hero of the *kabuki 歌舞伎 play of the same name and the subject of woodblock…

Lit. "aesthetic liking." Most simply love for elegant things, particularly poetry waka 和歌 and the objects of the…

Also called aisuki 相透. A carving tool used in woodblock printmaking *ukiyo-e…

A type of gate for temporary wooden enclosures. It is characterized by the attachment of horizontal, diagonal or vertical…

A same size copy of an original painting made by placing a thin piece of paper or silk over the original and tracing the…

A tea ceremony room *chashitsu 茶室 distinguished from a genuine tea ceremony…

A variation of the *shoin 書院 residence; a mansion or a country house for the…

A pictorial subject based on "Suma," Chapter 12 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale of Genji), which tells…

A term used by tile makers and setters instead of *marugawara 丸瓦, meaning a…

Also read kado-ishi 角石. Lit. "corner stone." Long, rectangularly-hewn stones laid horizontally at the corners of a…

Also nokisumigawara 軒隅瓦. Broad concave pendant tiles used at the eave ends of hip rafters *…

Also sumimune 隅棟. A descending corner ridge. A built-up ridge made of tile that follows the downward course of…

Ink. Ink was made from lampblack, soot susu 煤 produced by the incomplete combustion of aged pine wood (the product…

Also called kakubashira 角柱. A corner post or pillar that is square or rectangular.

1　A term referring to the arrangement of the utensils employed during a tea ceremony. Specifically, …

A river that flows through the eastern part of Tokyo, down to Tokyo Bay. It became a famous place, meisho 名所 due to…

Also called honsumigawara 本隅瓦; sumi tomoegawara 隅巴瓦. A half-round, corner, eave-end, pendant tile; also…

1　A general technical term for painting in black ink *sumi 墨, meaning without…

Also called corner eave tiles, noki-no-sumigawara 軒の隅瓦. A general term for the tiles used at the corner of a…

A long, narrow, rectangular tile cover used to protect the edge of a hip rafter from weathering. It is conjectured that…

Also called furezumi 振隅. The degree of roof deflection on a roof that has a different degree of incline on the…

Also called sumidaruki 隅垂木 and ōdaruki大垂木. A hip rafter or corner rafter that forms a diagonal ridge which…

Decorative clay tiles shaped to fit snugly over the crosscut, exposed end of a hip rafter, sumigi daruki 隅木垂木. The…

Also written 墨隈. A shading *kumadori 隈取 technique using black…

Also called *sumiyuki hijiki 隅行肘木, or ushihijiki 牛肘木. A corner…

Lit. "corner tail stone." The stone that butts against the rear face tomozura 友面 of the corner stone *…

The ink identification marks on a large timber which indicated where it is to be cut into planks, pillars, rafters, ridge,…

Also sumimendo 隅面戸. A roof tile fillet. An asymmetric fillet positioned below the corner descending ridge *…

A paper decoration design *ryōshi sōshoku 料紙装飾 similar to a marble…

Also known as sumi-ito 墨糸. A carpenter's inking line. It is used for drawing a reference line (the procedure is…

The end or corner newel post of a railing *kōran 高欄. The post is topped by a…

One of several arrangements for positioning the fire-box *ro 炉 or fixed hearth in a…

Also written 墨芯. A bamboo brush or drawing spatula. The tip of a piece of bamboo is sharpened into a pallet shape and then…

Also written 隅具. Also called sumitokyō 隅斗きょう. A bracket complex *tokyō…

Also sumidana 隅棚. An ornamental, triangular shelf made to fit into the corner of a decorative alcove *…

Carpenter's ink pot, or ink pad. The sumitsubo, unlike other carpentry tools, does not have a fixed shape or size.…

A castle entrance barrier *umadashi 馬出, erected at the corner of an…

A corner tower. Also written 角櫓. A timber-framed tower set on the corner of a castle wall where two stone walls jut out. In…

A school of painting that specialized in the *yamato-e やまと絵…

A stone gate-like entrance, torii of the myōjin type *myōjin…

A style of main sanctuary *honden 本殿 in Shinto shrine…

Also called *sumihijiki 隅肘木, tsunohijiki 角肘木 and ushihijiki…

A beam that runs parallel to a hip rafter, also called a common rafter *sumigi 隅木, or any…

Prints of sumō 相撲 wrestlers entering the ring, locked in combat or strolling along busy streets. Together with…

A method of metal casting using sand. Sand was contained in a frame, and a raw clay model of the desired object was pressed…

A type of foil *kirihaku 切箔, usually gold or silver, cut so finely that…

Lit. "gold dust printing." A technique used for woodblock printmaking *ukiyo-e…

Lit. "sand toilet." Originally a functioning toilet for use during tea gatherings, it later became a purely ornamental…

A plaster coating on a storehouse wall about 4.5 mm thick. Traditionally the mixture by volume was 10 parts of sand, 15…

Also suntori; also called issundori 一寸取, sun-osae 寸押 and sunkazoe 寸数. A method of…

Also suneate 臑当. A piece of leather or metal armor used to protect the shin. Used since the Kofun period, and…

A slatted floor or duckboard floor made of boards or bamboo laid parallel with space between; each board is called …

Bracket complexes constructed beneath a veranda to give it support.

A penetrating beam used as the backing and bracing for the various layers of plaster in the thick walls of a storehouse *…