The execution of a construction project.

Working scale drawings, including plans, elevations, and roof structure, etc. They are enlarged drawings that show various…

A Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing a young prince who is blind from…

Lit. "mudra for bestowing fearlessness (Sk: abhaya or abhayadana or abhayaprada mudra)." A mudra…

Also written 賎院. The quarters where the lowliest serfs lived in a Buddhist temple. In ancient Japan, these people were…

Also called komisen 込栓. A pin, peg, key, cotter or dowel made of hardwood, usually oak or zelkova. It varies in…

A pictorial subject in *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 taken from Senbonzakura (One…

Also written 甎仏 or 磚仏. Japanese buddhist images in relief on unglazed clay tiles sen せん which are square,…

1　An alternative term for *byakudan 白檀.

2…

A style of architecture exemplified by the 2-storied worship hall *haiden 拝殿 at…

Ch: qianjiang shanshui. A type of Chinese landscape painting using light red coloring for rocks and trees. The…

Lit. "Warring States period." The period began with the outbreak of the Ōnin Wars (Ōnin no ran 応仁の乱, 1467-77) and…

Votive papers. Small slips of paper on which pilgrims to temples and shrines wrote their names and addresses and which were…

Lit. "ideogram of the character sen 宣." A dais *daiza 台座 for a Buddhist…

Lit. "line pattern." A design pattern found on a slanting strut *shirin 支輪,…

Sk: Sahasrabhuja-arya-avalokitesvara. Thousand-armed Kannon or *Kannon 観音 with…

Screens decorated with fan paintings. There are two basic types of senmen byōbu: fan painting taken from used or…

Also ōgi-e 扇絵. Paintings or calligraphy on paper fans. In Japan, two basic types of fans have been used since the…

A flutter book. A variation of an accordion book *orihon 折本 in which a single…

Lit. "glittering green stone." A type of stone similar to granite but containing black granules. Often containing small…

Ch: Chuanzi Jiashan. A painting subject of the meeting between the Chinese ＣChan 禅 (Jp: Zen) priests Chuanzi (Jp: …

Lit. "spring water." Originally the term referred to spring water running through a garden. In Kyoto, a number of…

Lit. "thousand Buddhas." Sometimes abbreviated to senbutsu 千仏. A large number of Buddhist images, usually the same…

A festival held for a building that is to be dismantled and rebuilt, or undergo major repairs. Before construction begins,…

Lit. "the Buddha *Amida 阿弥陀 preaching a sermon seppō…

Lit. "the exposition of the Dharma mudra." A mudra or hand gesture *in 印…

Also called seridashi 迫出, seriage 迫上. Lit. "trap" or "trap door." A platform on which actors or some types…

Ch: Shisheng wenji. Also shashin monge 捨身聞偈 (Ch: Sheshen wenji). Lit. "giving up the body to hear…

Lit. "stone river." A bugaku 舞楽 mask *bugakumen 舞楽面…

A Shinto shrine, second in rank and size to the main shrine honsha 本社, but having a status higher than the *…

Ch: zhezhihua. Lit. "cut-branch flowers." A type of highly idealized Chinese flower painting that focuses on a…

Also setchū kenchiku 折衷建築. Architecture that became strongly influenced in the 14th-15th century by two new…

Seto 瀬戸 ware. Pottery made in Seto city and nearby areas of modern Aichi Prefecture. The Seto area was the center of pottery…

Painting subjects of winter snow, the autumn moon, and spring cherry blossoms, often presented in a triptych format. The…

Fundamental Advice for Students, a late Muromachi period treatise on painting technique attributed to the painter…

Ch: zhelumiao. Lit. "bent-reed drawing." An ink-painting technique that employs brush strokes with pronounced…

The painting of any kind of narrative story such as popular folk tales, war stories, novels, diaries, etc. The term has come…

A method of preventing cracks in the heartwood *shinzai 心材 or jushin 樹心, of a…

An abbreviation of shachisen 車知栓. A draw pin, key or cotter made of hard wood, usually zelkova or oak. The pin is…

Also shachihoko 鯱, 鯱鉾. Lit. "killer whale." Fish-shaped ornaments at both ends of a roof-ridge. Thought to be…

A representation or drawing created from the imagination or from the feeling or spirit of the object rather than from its…

Often abbreviated to engi-e 縁起絵. Paintings of the origins and history of a temple or shrine, usually amplified with…

Lit. "eight phases (or aspects) of Shakamuni *Shaka 釈迦." Also referred to as…

Lit. "Shaka triad." A group of 3 Buddhist images composed of *Shaka …

1　Abbreviation of Shakamuni 釈迦牟尼 or Shakamon 釈迦文 (Sk: Sakyamuni), meaning sage of the Sakyas. The name by…

A hall in which a statue of the historical Buddha *Shaka 釈迦, born in either the mid-6th or mid-…

Also shashike 社司家 or shakeshū 社家衆.

1　A hereditary line of Shinto priests of…

Also shake. A style of topknot *hōkei 宝髻 in the shape of…

A township composed of *shake 社家, families who held posts (usually hereditary) as…

Lit. "borrowed scenery." The method of incorporating a distant vista into the composition of a garden. A river, the ocean,…

Ch: Shiqiao. Lit. "stone bridge." A bridge on Mt. Tiantai 天台山 (Jp: Tendai) in eastern Zhejiang 浙江 Province, China. Mt.…

Lit. "gold bronze." Ornamental metal fittings *kazari kanagu …

Also ushōjō 有声杖, chijō 智杖, and tokujō 徳杖. Sk: khakkhara. A pilgrim's staff or sistrum.…

Also shakujōbori 釈杖彫, yuengata 油煙形. A type of decorative carving *…

Dipper-shaped metal fixtures used to cover the extended cylindrical ends at the top and bottom of timber doors. After…

Oblique glance. A Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing a middle-aged…

To notch, gouge out or scoop a section of a structural element. The term is used especially for grooves or channels into…

Lit. "dipper or ladle tenon." A flat tenon *hozo ほぞ that is attached to the end…

Volcanic tuff, or small volcanic detritus. Named for a valley, Shakutani 笏谷, in Fukui Prefecture, where it is found. It is…

Also hishakutate 柄杓立. A ladle stand or holder for the ladle or dipper, and charcoal tongs. Shakutate is…

A rod-like, rectangular piece of wood made of Japanese cedar sugi 杉, or Japanese cypress hinoki 桧, 1.8 to…

A group of administrative and sometimes commercial buildings at a Shinto shrine. In ancient times, each shrine was…

Also konnyakubon 蒟蒻本 or kohon 小本 (typically made of folded half-sized *…

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…