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 *…

A purplish-red dye senryō 染料 color name, and the plant from which it is made. The su plant sappanwood…

Also written 摺揚障子. Also called *agesage shōji 上下障子.

Also read shūbutsu. A Buddhist image printed in ink on paper or cloth, and often placed inside a Buddhist statue (…

Rubbed metal foil. A decorative technique for textiles in which metal foil is impressed on a design first drawn in paste.…

Lit. "printed matter." High quality, privately sponsored woodblock prints mainly produced 1790's-1830's. Originally, the…

Lit. "omitting a printing." An *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 woodblock printmaking…

Written susa 寸莎. Also tsuta つた. A generic term for fibrous substances, including straw, hemp, or paper…

1　A wall with an entirely flat white surface.

2　A simple board wall.

Lit. "discarded stone." One of the seven trump stones *nanatsu-ishi…

Moats dug in open areas some distance from a castle, to hinder the advance of enemy forces.

A sacrificial compound constructed in front of a main compound. A camp used to launch an attacking force. When a force moves…

A type of molding *kurigata 繰形 incised on the lower edge of a…

Also sutedo. A bracket *tokyō 斗きょう that has the same…

The front gate at the center of the south end of the outer enclosure that surrounded the palace compound at Heijō-kyō 平城京…

Lit. "sparrow entrance, exit." A gap under the eave end tiles *nokisakigawara…

Lit. "sparrow dance." A widely-used term for a range of elements used to decorate the ridge of the roof in vernacular houses…

A pictorial subject taken from "Suzumushi" ("The Bell Cricket"), Chapter 38 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale…

Also written 研. Inkstone. A base made of stone or other material used for grinding *sumi…

A box designed to hold an inkstone *suzuri 硯 and other writing tools, such as an…

Also tsumegawara 爪瓦. A row of narrow tile pieces cut crosswise from semi-cylindrical tiles *…

A Japanese castle. Refers to 25 castles constructed in various regions of Korea by the Japanese forces during the Bunroku-…

1　An abstract decorative pattern of extended curved lines based on the form of a leaf. The pattern is…

Lit. "Shinto image of a young prince." A generic term covering both images of a divine son of the main enshrined Shinto…

Lit. "young lavender." A pictorial subject based on "Wakamurasaki" ("Lavender"), Chapter 5 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語…

A pictorial subject taken from "Wakana" ("New Herbs"), which is divided into two parts, making up Chapters 34 and 35 of …

Young girl. A Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing a young woman. The mature…

Young man. A Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing a young commoner with…

The wakiagari allowed visitors to enter or leave the residence from a waiting palanquin kago 駕篭 without…

Shelves forming part of an arrangement in the space next to the decorative alcove *…

A small door, usually beside the main door of a structure. Sometimes there is one on each side of the main door.

A plane used to smooth the sides of a groove, particularly in a doorsill or lintel, after the base plane, *…

Lit. "side gable pendant." Also *kudarigegyo 降懸魚, *…

A secondary *honjin 本陣, authorized by the Tokugawa 徳川 government for the…

Side sanctuary. Areas beside the main hall *hondō 本堂 of a Buddhist…

A side entrance to a castle. A small, inconspicuous entrance located on the side of a castle, in contrast with the main gate…

A long, narrow, vertical wall constructed between two or more pillars, or on each side of an entrance or a window.