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  • (-) General Terms (78)
  • Architecture (75)
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Displaying 1 - 78 of 78
Title Contains Image(s) Description Keywords
uchikaeshi 打返し

Also pronounced uttegaeshi 打って返し, utasegaeshi 打たせ返し. Perfect symmetry on both sides of a center line…

Architecture, General Terms
uchikorobi 内転

Pillars *hashira 柱 with an inward incline. Uchikorobi…

Architecture, General Terms
uchikoshi daruki ✓

Rafters *taruki 垂木 that extend from the flying rafter support *…

Architecture, General Terms
uchinorinuki 内法貫

A penetrating tie beam *nuki 貫 placed directly on top of a door or…

Architecture, General Terms
uchinorizai 内法材

Also called uchinorimono 内法物. The wooden materials used for the framework of a sliding screen *…

Architecture, General Terms
udegi 腕木

1 A relatively short horizontal timber that functions like a brace. It is attached to and extends outward…

Architecture, General Terms
uguisubari 鴬張

Lit. "nightingale floor." Floor boards which rub together when walked on to produce a pleasant and delicate sound. This type…

Architecture, General Terms
ukegi 受木

A generic term for all supporting or receiving structural members. For example, a timber that receives an eave cornice is…

Architecture, General Terms
umegi 埋木

Also read umeki. A wooden dowel or plug used to fill a hole in a piece of timber. If a knot or some other flaw…

Architecture, General Terms
umemodoshi 埋戻

To fill in any remaining open spaces with sand, gravel, soil, or other such substances, after the foundation and all…

Architecture, General Terms
ura-ita 裏板

A generic term for backing boards, which are boards nailed over rafters to form a backing for the roofing. In an open roof…

Architecture, General Terms
uragaeshi-nuri 裏返塗

Also called uragaeshi 裏返 or yobinuri 呼塗. Soft, rough plaster arakabe tsuchi 荒壁土 applied to…

Architecture, General Terms
uragaya 裏茅

Also urappo 裏穂. A thatching material used on vernacular dwellings *minka…

Architecture, General Terms
uragō 裏甲 ✓

Visible eaves filler placed the eave support *kayaoi 茅負, and projected slightly…

Architecture, General Terms
uragome 裏込

Also read uragomi. The process of filling the gaps in the rear of a stone retaining wall or stone fence with rubble…

Architecture, General Terms
urakabe 裏壁

A plaster wall which has mud plaster applied to the front side and then to the rear side before the plaster on the front…

Architecture, General Terms
urauchi marutagaki 裏打丸太垣

Also called marutagaki 丸太垣. A fence constructed with logs positioned at fairly close intervals and three horizontal…

Architecture, General Terms
urazan 裏桟

A crosspiece used to secure the back or upper side of a ceiling board.

Architecture, General Terms
urazumi 裏積

Bricks or stones set at the back of a brick or stone wall to give it extra support. The term is an abbreviation of …

Architecture, General Terms
ushibari 牛梁

1 A particularly large beam that runs in a longitudinal direction, ketayuki hōkō 桁行方向 (see *…

Architecture, General Terms, Folk Dwellings
ushirobutai 後舞台

The rear stage between dressing rooms and the rear door of the main stage in a *kabuki…

Architecture, General Terms
usushikii 薄敷居

Lit. "thin sills." A lintel and sill used under and above transom *ranma 欄間.…

Architecture, General Terms
utsubo-bashira 靫柱

Also written 空柱. Lit. "hollow pillar." A box-like down-spout tatedoi 竪樋 used to carry rainwater from roof gutters…

Architecture, General Terms
uwaba 上端

Also called tenba 天端.

1 The top surface of an object, or the peak of a structural member.…

Architecture, General Terms
uwabari 上張

Also written 上貼, also called visible top layer keshōbari 化粧張, front side hyōmenbari 表面張 or finishing…

Architecture, General Terms
uwanoki 上軒

The upper-most eave of a nokizuke 軒付 or nokiba 軒端 eave end. Each part of the eave has a name. The…

Architecture, General Terms
uwanuri 上塗り

1 Also shiagenuri 仕上げ塗. The final layer applied to a decorative painting sōshoku kōji…

Art History, Architecture, General Terms, Painting
uwanuri tsuchi 上塗土

The top or finishing coat of a mud plaster wall, tsuchimonokabe 土物壁 or ōtsukabe 大津壁.

Architecture, General Terms
uyū 烏有 ✓

Also called tori-no-shita 鳥の舌 (lit. "bird's tongue"). A somewhat triangular piece of wood added to a bracket arm *…

Architecture, General Terms
uzu-ita 渦板

A board with a carved spiral-like uzusen 渦線 linear design. It is found on frog-leg struts *…

Architecture, General Terms
yagura kemudashi 櫓煙出 ✓

Also written 櫓烟出. Also read yagura kemuridashi. An opening constructed in a thatched roof to allow the escape of…

Architecture, General Terms
yaguranuki 櫓貫

Commonly double-penetrating, diagonally placed beams that connect the main post *…

Architecture, General Terms
yakata tenjō 屋形天井

1 A ceiling with the same pitch as the roof. Really, an exposed ceiling *…

Architecture, General Terms
yakuba 役場

1 The parts of a stone wall such as exterior corners, top surfaces, or openings for drainage where…

Architecture, General Terms, Folk Dwellings
yamamichi katō 山道火灯

A window used especially in the Zen style *zenshūyō 禅宗様; a type of ogival…

Architecture, General Terms
yamato 大和 ✓

1 An abbreviation for yamatouchi-no-to 大和打の戸 or yamatouchi 大和打. A door that has vertical…

Architecture, General Terms
yamatobuki 大和葺 ✓

1 A type of board roofing made by first spacing boards of equal width at predetermined intervals and then…

Architecture, General Terms, Tea Houses
yane-ita 屋根板

A generic name for various types of roofing boards including *noji-ita…

Architecture, General Terms
yane kōzō 屋根構造 ✓

The construction of the roof framework or roof truss over the body of a building. The essential framing for a gable roof *…

Architecture, General Terms
yane 屋根 ✓

Also called okugai 屋蓋, lit. "roof covering." A generic term for various types of roofs, roof styles, and roofing.…

Architecture, General Terms
yanebuki 屋根葺

Roofing or roof covering. The most commonly used types of roofing are clay tiles *…

Architecture, General Terms
yanegae 屋根替

Rethatching, retiling, or reshingling a roof whereby old roofing is replaced with new roofing.

Architecture, General Terms
yanekugi 屋根釘

Also kobanekugi 小羽根釘. Small round bamboo roofing nails, with a diameter between 2.1 to 2.8 mm and a length from 50…

Architecture, General Terms
yaneura 屋根裏

1 See *keshō yaneura 化粧屋根裏.

2 An…

Architecture, General Terms
yaraiko 矢来子 The framing members of a fence. They may be vertical, horizontal, diagonal, or arranged to form squares or lozenges. A variety… Architecture, General Terms
yareigeta 破井桁 ✓

Lit. "broken well crib." Also yabureigeta. A design used for muntins *kumiko…

Architecture, General Terms
yatsumune-zukuri 八棟造 ✓

Lit. "eight-ridge construction." A complicated roof style with multiple ridges and bargeboards, or large vernacular house…

Architecture, General Terms
yawari 矢割

A method of stone-splitting achieved by boring a hole in the stone. A wedge *kusabi…

Architecture, General Terms
Yayoi jidai 弥生時代

The Yayoi period (ca. 400 BCE to 250 CE). The period is marked by the establishment of rice cultivation and an agrarian…

Art History, General Terms
yō 様

A suffix. When used in architectural history, it means a technical style, as in *…

Architecture, General Terms
yodo 淀 ✓

Also yodogi 淀木 or yodonuki 淀貫. Tapered horizontal timber, 12-15 cm wide and 4.5 cm thick, placed on top of…

Architecture, General Terms
yōjigane 楊枝鉄

Also called chikara gane 力鉄 or kanehōzu-e 鉄方杖.
Slender iron rods used to strengthen the extensions of…

Architecture, General Terms
yoko-ita 横板

1 Horizontal, parallel boards with a wood grain that runs sideways. In shrine architecture *…

Architecture, General Terms
yokome-ita 横目板

Also called *oshibuchi 押縁. Narrow, thin battens placed horizontally over…

Architecture, General Terms
yokoshigezan 横繁桟 ✓

Closely spaced horizontal crosspieces commonly found on latticed doors *mairado…

Architecture, General Terms
yokoshino 横篠 ✓

1 The horizontal line of a bamboo joint.

2 The line carved into the short posts at…

Architecture, General Terms
yokozan 横桟 ✓

Also called nakazan 中桟. A generic term for the parallel crosspieces used to frame doors, windows, and other…

Architecture, General Terms
yokozando 横桟戸 ✓

A timber door frame into which horizontal boards are set. The seams tsugime 継目 are hidden by crosspieces nailed in…

Architecture, General Terms
yomezuka 嫁束

Also called *kirizuka 切束, komitatara 込たたら. A short strut…

Architecture, General Terms
yoroido 鎧戸

Also called gararido がらり戸. The horizontal, louver boards yoroi-ita 鎧板 of a door that run parallel to each…

Architecture, General Terms
yosegi 寄木

1 The upper horizontal timber yosegi 寄木, in a transom, called *…

Architecture, General Terms
yosejikii 寄敷居 ✓ Also called *tatamiyose 畳寄, or abbreviated to yose 寄. A horizontal timber level with… Architecture, General Terms
yosemune yane 寄棟屋根 ✓

Also abbreviated to yosemune 寄棟, also called yotsuyane 四つ屋根. A hipped roof. A roof that descends from the…

Architecture, General Terms
yosemune-zukuri 寄棟造

Also called *shia 四阿 in the Nara period. Also komune-zukuri 小棟造, …

Architecture, General Terms
yoshido 葭戸 A sliding door or screen filled with reeds yoshi 葭 or ashi 葦, sometimes called match stick blinds, to admit summer… Architecture, General Terms
yoshigaki 葭垣

Also ashigaki 葦垣. Also called yoshizubei 葭簀塀 or yoshizugaki 葭簀垣. A fence made of ditch reed …

Architecture, General Terms
Yoshino jidai 吉野時代

The Yoshino period. A seldom-used, rather old-fashioned term for the Southern and Northern Courts period *…

Art History, General Terms
yotesaki tokyō 四手先斗きょう

A 4-stepped bracket complex found mainly on the upper part of a *tahōtō 多宝塔.…

Architecture, General Terms
yotsuya maruta 四谷丸太

Also called yotsuya migaki maruta 四谷磨き丸太 or migaki maruta 磨き丸太. A cedar log stripped of its bark and then…

Architecture, General Terms
yūgen 幽玄

Lit. "profound mystery." A multivalent and influential medieval aesthetic ideal expressing darkness, depth, mystery,…

Art History, General Terms
yukachigai 床違

Floors that have different levels. For example, the floor of the alcove *tokonoma…

Architecture, General Terms
yukadaka 床高

The distance from the top surface of a floor to the ground below. The term can also refer to the height of a building's…

Architecture, General Terms
yukaura 床裏

The space made by the joists *neda 根太, between the flooring of a second story and…

Architecture, General Terms
yukazuka 床束

Short struts placed on base stones beneath a floor to support the sleepers *ōbiki…

Architecture, General Terms
yukimi shōji 雪見障子

Also called *agesage shōji 上下障子 (up and down shōji). Lit. "snow…

Architecture, General Terms
yumi ranma 弓欄間 ✓

Also called namiranma 波欄間 (wave-patterned slats), takewaki ranma 立涌欄間 (vertical billow-patterned slats in…

Architecture, General Terms
yūri odaruki 遊離尾垂木 ✓

Separated tail rafters supported by fulcrums which in turn support long purlins at their mid point and at each end. They are…

Architecture, General Terms
yuta-zukuri 雪打造

Also written 雨打造. A style of architecture that employs pent roof. A common 13th-19th century expression for *…

Architecture, General Terms

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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