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JAANUS

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  • (-) Castles (41)
  • Architecture (41)

Displaying 1 - 41 of 41
Title Contains Image(s) Description Keywords
tachisama 立狭間

A loophole *sama 狭間 cut in a wall about chest high to a standing soldier.…

Architecture, Castles
tai-no-shiro 対の城

Lit. "confronting castle." Also termed mukaijiro 向城 (facing castle) and *tsukejiro…

Architecture, Castles
tamon 多聞

Also termed tamon-zukuri 多聞造, tamon'yagura 多聞櫓 (many listen tower) and tamon nagaya 多聞長屋 (many…

Architecture, Castles
tatakidoi 敲土居

A pounded earth embankment. It was made of layers of earth mixed with water, pounded down and allowed to harden. The wall…

Architecture, Castles
tate 館

Also read tachi. A small castle shiro 城 and/or a wealthy provincial residence *…

Architecture, Castles
tatebori 竪堀

A vertical dry moat. Also read tatsubori; sometimes written 立堀, 竪濠. A dry moat *…

Architecture, Castles
teikakushiki 梯郭式

Lit. "ladder-shaped compound plan." Short for teikakushiki nawabari 梯郭式縄張. A plan that fortified a castle entrance…

Architecture, Castles
tenshu shinbashira 天守心柱

Lit. "tower central pillar." A pillar found in the main structure of castles, sometimes used singly and sometimes in pairs.…

Architecture, Castles
tenshu 天守 ✓

Also called tenshukaku 天守閣, tenshuyagura 天守櫓. Also written 天主, 殿主, and 殿守. The principal tower-like…

Architecture, Castles
tenshudai 天守台 ✓

The independent raised foundation upon which the principal tower *tenshu 天守 was constructed.…

Architecture, Castles
teppō sama 鉄砲狭間

Also called jūgan 銃眼 (loophole). A gun loophole or gun port. An opening through which to shoot a firearm from…

Architecture, Castles
terakōbai 寺勾配

Also termed nawadarumi 縄だるみ (slackened rope). A concave shaped stone wall with a curved surface that resembles a…

Architecture, Castles
tojō 外城

Also read sotojiro. An outer castle or fortification.

1 A separately enclosed fortification…

Architecture, Castles
toride 砦

Also written 取出, 取手, 塞 also 寨. A small-scale fort, fortification, or stronghold. A structure built near the main castle or…

Architecture, Castles
tsubosama 坪狭間

Also written 壷狭間. Large bamboo stalks that are cut in section, painted and placed in outer castle walls and in the walls of…

Architecture, Castles
tsuji-umadashi 辻馬出

An intersection barrier. A single barrier that is constructed to defend two entrances to a castle that have been constructed…

Architecture, Castles
tsukejiro 付城

1 A fortification built as a staging camp from which to attack an enemy's castle…

Architecture, Castles
tsukimi yagura 月見櫓 ✓

A moon viewing tower of the *yagura 櫓 type found at a number of castles. Also…

Architecture, Castles
tsume-no-shiro 詰の城

Also read tsumejiro 詰城, or written 爪城 or tsume-no-shiro 攻の城.

1 The castle…

Architecture, Castles
tsunagi-no-shiro 繋の城

Same as tsunagijiro or tsunagishiro 繋城.

1 A type of branch castle *…

Architecture, Castles
tsuribei 釣塀

A decoy wall, or pseudo-wall. A wall that was built so as to hang over an earthen embankment or stone wall of a castle. When…

Architecture, Castles
tsuzuki yagura 続櫓

Tower connected with a gate or another tower. Examples connected to gates include Hikone-jō Taikomon 彦根城太鼓門 in Shiga…

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

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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