1　A king post. A generic term for a roof strut, koyazuka 小屋束, that rests upon a transverse beam *…

The center of a timber indicated with a black line made by an inked marking string called sumi-ito 墨糸 or *…

Enamel, cloisonne or champleve. A decorative technique where areas of enamel are separated by metal dykes or wires. Usually…

Lit. "a pillar lavishly decorated with cloisonne." Pillars embellished with a variety of materials and techniques: intricate…

A line made on timber using a tool with a needle-like point.

Also written 白木柱, pronounced shiroki bashira. A tree trunk with its bark removed and used as a pillar. Its surface…

Also written 白木 and pronounced shiroki. A generic term for a natural timber that has been stripped of its bark…

1　The upper end of a roof tile. Also referred to as *kawarajiri…

Also called sedo 背戸. Backdoor, rear door of a building or a stable.
Also written 尻戸. The doors that constitute…

A nail or spike driven through a hole at the rear of a roof tile yanegawara 屋根瓦 to prevent it from slipping. In…

Also written 枝輪. A short, curved, non-supporting member that forms a diagonal transition between two parallel horizontal…

1　A white, finishing coat of plaster *shikkui 漆喰 applied to a wall. It…

Also pronounced *shiraki bashira; also written 素木柱. A tree trunk…

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

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

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

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…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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…

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

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

Also hakkutsuhin 発掘品. Lit. "objects which came out of the earth." Excavated objects. *…

Also called kiwaki or kowaki 木端. A side or end view of a board or plank which reveals its thickness.

Rafters *taruki 垂木 laid on an eave sobanoki 傍軒, that juts out from a…

Also sōban 双盤. A cushion or footing stone with a concave upper part and a convex lower part placed between the…

Lit. "sleeve."

1　A generic term meaning any structural element that is on the side of a main…

Aside or wing wall.

1　A generic term for a narrow wall projecting from either an inside or outside…

The process by which the diameter of the ends of large rainbow beams *kōryō 虹梁…

Small wing-like balustrades placed at an open angle to the right and left of the bottom of the steps leading to the veranda…

1　A small reinforcement post attached to the side of a larger post or pillar. If a reinforcement post is…

1　A splice, fish plate, splint or brace. Timber strips attached to principal pillars to stabilize or…

Also called yosezuka 寄束 or wakizuka 脇束. Small reinforcing struts attached to one or both sides of a beam…

Also written 曾木板 or 枌板; also called hegi-ita へぎ板. A thinly cut wooden shingle, 3 mm thick, and usually 30 cm x…

A ditch surrounding a property, usually dug between a road and private land.

Also read somakaku. Timber that is made square by hewing and shaving with a hatchet *…

The moment when tree felling begins to obtain the wood to be used for a statue.

Also written 備. Also called kumimono 組物 or *tokyō 斗きょう. A set of…

An upper floor extending over the entire area of the ground floor of a building.

Also called terihafu 照破風. A generic term for bargeboards *hafu 破風 with…

Lit. "pagoda finial." The vertical shaft which protrudes from the top of a pagoda. The sōrin, whether made of…

Also called soriwatarō 反渡廊, taikobashienrōka 太鼓橋縁廊下. Roofed, open-sided corridors with a convex…

A roof with a concave curve that extends from the base of the ridge *munagi 棟木…

Lit. "foundation stone." A base stone which receives the dead load of a pillar. The upper side of the base stone was made…

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 …

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

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…

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

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

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…

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…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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…

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

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

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

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 *…

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…

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.

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

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.

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

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…