Skip to main content

JAANUS

  • a (4)
  • b (3)
  • c (7)
  • d (12)
  • f (3)
  • g (2)
  • h (18)
  • i (12)
  • j (4)
  • k (30)
  • m (11)
  • n (10)
  • o (8)
  • r (3)
  • s (23)
  • t (22)
  • u (9)
  • w (3)
  • y (19)
  • (-) Castles (42)
  • Architecture (42)
  • Gates (2)
  • General Terms (1)

Displaying 1 - 42 of 42
Title Contains Image(s) Description Keywords
saku 柵

1 Fence. Read ki (also written 城) in the ancient period. A palisade of stakes aligned at regular…

Architecture, Castles
sama 狭間 ✓

Also read hasama. A loophole or porthole made in the wall of the keep, tower, or parapet to allow a castle to…

Architecture, Castles
samakubari 狭間配

Lit. "loophole distribution." The number of loopholes per two meter (one ken 間) interval in a castle. Also refers…

Architecture, Castles
satojiro 里城

A village castle. A medieval castle built in a low-lying village. Typically furnished with defensive installations.

Architecture, Castles
seirō 井楼

Also termed seirō yagura 井楼櫓. A watch tower. Seirō were built from the Muromachi to the early…

Architecture, Castles
sekimon 石門

1 Also read ishimon. A gate made almost entirely of stone, seen especially in Okinawa Prefecture.…

Architecture, Gates, Castles
sekishōmon 石牆門

Also written 石墻門. Lit. "stone wall gate." A gate with either single or triple arch-like openings in a wall made of stacked…

Architecture, Gates, Castles
shibadoi 芝土居

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

Architecture, Castles
shihōzumi 四方積

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

Architecture, Castles
shijō 支城

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

Architecture, Castles
shirodori nawabari 城取縄張

The process of castle construction, from site selection to the layout of the compound. Early modern military technicians…

Architecture, Castles
shōjibori 障子堀

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

Architecture, Castles
shukujiro 宿城

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

Architecture, General Terms, Castles
sodemasugata 袖桝形

A defensive square projection in a castle wall on one side of the castle entrance *…

Architecture, Castles
sōgamae 総構

Also termed sōgawa 総河, sometimes written 総側 or 総川, sōguruwa 総郭, 総曲輪. The enclosure that surrounds a town…

Architecture, Castles
sotobori 外堀 ✓

The outer moat of a castle that has two or more moats. Generally, the inner slope, nearer the castle, is steep while the…

Architecture, Castles
sōtōgata tenshu 層塔型天守

Also termed sōtō tenshu 層塔天守. A multi-storied castle tower. A technically advanced tower employing the same careful…

Architecture, Castles
sumi-ishi 隅石 ✓

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

Architecture, Castles
sumijiri-ishi 隅尻石

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

Architecture, Castles
sumiumadashi 隅馬出

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

Architecture, Castles
sumiyagura 隅櫓 ✓

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…

Architecture, Castles
sutebori 捨堀

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

Architecture, Castles
suteguruwa 捨郭

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

Architecture, Castles
yagenbori 薬研堀

A widely used moat with sides that slope like an earthen embankment. The name is derived from the moat having a bottom with…

Architecture, Castles
yagura 櫓 ✓

A guard tower set atop the corners of a castle's stone wall and other strategic positions overlooking the surrounding area.…

Architecture, Castles
yakatajiro 館城

Also written 屋形城.

1 A structure that combines the daily living quarters of a mansion with the…

Architecture, Castles
yamajiro-no-koguchi 山城の虎口

A mountain castle entrance. The entrance *koguchi 虎口 of a mountain…

Architecture, Castles
yamajiro 山城 ✓

Lit. "mountain castle." A castle built on a mountain to take advantage of the mountain's topography. One of the three main…

Architecture, Castles
yamame uchikomizumi 山目打込積み

Lit. "mountain eye pounding and inserting piling." A dry construction method used to pile stones for a stone wall *…

Architecture, Castles
yarisama 鑓狭間

A loophole for thrusting pikes and spears. Typically, they are installed in narrow locations beside main castle entrances…

Architecture, Castles
yashikijiro 屋敷城

A small castle or fortification built like a a country house or mansion yashiki 屋敷. In the middle ages, it usually…

Architecture, Castles
yazama 矢狭間

An arrow loophole in a castle wall. Also sengan 箭眼. Characterized by a vertical opening about 45 cm high (1 …

Architecture, Castles
yō no koguchi 陽の虎口

Positive castle entrance or yang entrance. A generic term for various types of castle entrance *…

Architecture, Castles
yōgai 要害

Also written 用害.

1 A place of strategic importance, having steep terrain that is easy to defend. In…

Architecture, Castles
yokobori 横堀

A lateral dry moat excavated crosswise in front of a mountain castle *yamajiro…

Architecture, Castles
yokosama 横狭間

A side loophole of the *yarisama 鑓狭間 type for pike and spears. Typically…

Architecture, Castles
yokoya 横矢

Lit. "side arrow."

1 Attacking from the side. Also sokusha 側射, sokubō 側防. An…

Architecture, Castles
yokoya hizumi 横矢邪

Also written 横矢斜 and 横矢歪. Lit. "distorted rampart." A diagonal projection from a castle rampart. Used by defending troops to…

Architecture, Castles
yokoya masugata 横矢桝形

Also termed demasugata 出桝形. A defensive box-shaped courtyard *masugata…

Architecture, Castles
yokoya sumi-otoshi 横矢角落 ✓

Also written 横矢隅落. A diagonally cut-away corner of a castle tower, used to launch side attacks *…

Architecture, Castles
yosekakebashira 寄掛柱

A post set against a castle's sloping stone wall, at the same angle of incline, under the watch tower gate *…

Architecture, Castles
yukidomariguruwa 行留郭

A cul-de-sac compound. A long and narrow castle compound with only one gateway entrance which turns into a blind alley.…

Architecture, Castles

Contributor Login

JAANUS is the on-line Dictionary of Japanese Architectural and Art Historical Terminology compiled by Dr. Mary Neighbour Parent.

Originally built by the Atsumi International Scholarship Foundation, it is now hosted and maintained by the Media Center for Art History at Columbia University