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: *…

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…

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…

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…

1　One of the purlins used in a hidden roof *noyane …

A vertical timber that rises from a level or inclined surface. In modular measurement of timber *…

Lit. "large bottle strut." A strut that is used mainly in Zen style architecture *…

The trimming or hewing of the opposite sides of a log so that the surfaces become flat and parallel making it easier to join…

Also called taikobari 太鼓張, fukuroshōji 袋障子, bōzufusuma 坊主襖.
A type of paper-covered,…

Also called soribashi 反橋. An arched bridge made of stone or wood. One example is the Yoka Jinja 与賀神社 (1607) in Saga…

A door frame covered on both sides with boards or panels. The inside of the door, like a drum taiko 太鼓, is empty.…

A pillar or post that is multi-sided or cut with many facets.

Lit. "bamboo post." One that has been squared off.

Bamboo or bamboo muntins that are used for windows in dwellings where a suggestion of rusticity is needed, or in tea…

Paper-covered bamboo frames used as full-sized sliding doors *shōji 障子, or the…

The generic term for a fence surrounding the square or rectangular space containing the main sanctuary *…

A solid, single beam made from one timber. The term is used to differentiate it from a composite beam called gōseibari…

Shelves.

1　 A type of shelf, sometimes with a rack, of which there are many ordinary household…

A timber shorter than the standard length.

A single-structure storehouse constructed of triangular timber or planks set in grid plan, *…

Also written たるき. This is the simplest type of rafter, called common rafter or base rafter. It extends from the ridge *…

Lit. "rafter construction." Also referred to as odachi toriigumi おだち鳥居組. One of the two principal types of assembly…

An angled joint *shiguchi 仕口 used to insert rafters into a ridge *…

A board placed parallel to the rafters on a gable roof *kirizuma yane …

Also read tarukigake. A horizontal timber attached to the posts of an exterior wall to support the undersides of…

The various systems of placing rafters *taruki 垂木 in relation to the pillars *…

The degree of curvature on a bargeboard *hafu 破風, or on a roof between the peak…

Also read tōsho. The burial place for the remains of prominent Buddhist priests. Historically, the ashes of Buddha…

Also called sukebari. A beam which stabilizes bottle struts *taiheizuka…

Also tasukizan. Thin stips of timber san 桟 that intersect to form a criss-cross pattern or a zig-zag…

A floor covering made of tightly woven grass and straw. A standard tatami is a rectangular mat about 1.82 m (≒6')…

Also called *yosejikii 寄敷居. A small, horizontal wooden strip that is placed…

Also written 鑪. The modern character is ro 鈩, and can mean furnace. Tatara is an ancient word meaning…

A board and batten wall. Thin boards with battens attached are set vertically to hide the joints, a Zen style *…

A type of tomb made in the Tumulus period, also called Kofun period. A pit was dug and lined with cut stone such that the…

Also called nunobame 布羽目. Vertically placed wooden panels cut from the long side of a large piece of timber. When…

Also read ritchūshiki. A ceremony performed when the main post, tate-bashira, of a building is erected.…

Also written 縦縁. Perpendicular stiles on both sides of opaque sliding screens *fusuma…

Also read jūdanmen-zu, meaning "to cut vertically." Either a longitudinal or cross section drawing made along the…

Also called tatsudoi 立樋. A cylindrical or square drain pipe that allows rain water to flow from the rain gutters *…

Also read tachidokoro. The point where a structural timber begins to rise. For example, the place where the bottom…

A generic term for removable screens, doors or shutters. This includes: sliding screens *…

Lit. "vertical post shrine fence." Also called kakutamagaki 角玉垣 (square shrine fence) or *…

Also written 縦ほぞ. Usually the two tenons made on each end of a threshold *shikii…

Also written 竪蔀; also called itajitomi 板蔀. A moveable fence used in aristocratic dwellings of the Heian and…

All the basic wooden structural members produced at a building site including the ridge, and the ceremony of raising the…

Also called awasemeji 合目地. Lines made when vertical stone panels are arranged along the sides of podii *…

Also called tatehonshigesan 竪本繁桟, tatehonshigesankumi 竪本繁桟組; tateshigekumi 竪繁組. Closely-spaced…

The measurement of floor space in any traditional type building using *tsubo 坪 (3.31 meters…

The accurate alignment of posts, pillars, stiles, and trim on a door frame in order to allow for the perfect fit of a hinged…

The boards placed over rafters *taruki 垂木, to form the underside of a roof and…

Also called tatedōzan 竪胴桟. Vertical lath used for a door or window frame. Lath called san 桟 can be set…

Lit. "Secret Text on Garden Construction." A treatise on landscape design supposedly written first in the Muromachi period.…

Two large posts placed to the right and left of the *kabuki 歌舞伎 stage, kabuki …

Lit. "ceiling boards." Ceiling boards made from cypress, fir, white or red cedar, and other coniferous trees. The zelkova…