A wooden sliding door constructed of a single wooden panel *wata-ita…

Thin, parallel strips of wood about 2-3 cm wide and 1.8 cm thick affixed to the front and back of a door *…

A partition. The partitioning or dividing of an interior or an individual room into separate spaces, allowing for tremendous…

Pillars that are decorated with ornamental bands. The bands may be made of metal, painted with lacquer or covered with…

Small, square, or slightly rectangular bearing blocks placed on a bracket arm *hijiki…

1　A wedge-shaped piece of wood used to join structural members.

2　Short members…

Also called makurabasami 枕挟 or makurabakama 枕袴. The non-penetrating tie beams *…

Lit. "a half door." Also called hantobira 半扉 or hando 半戸, both meaning a half door. A low door, about one…

A style of gable roof, manekiyane 招屋根, in which one side is a standard normal length from ridge to eave ends and…

An arrangement of bargeboards *hafu 破風 on a gable roof *…

Also called *nehijiki 根肘木. Bracket arms used to support the shorter side…

A descending corner ridge that connects the main ridge with a lower main ridge. This corner ridge, also known as …

The shorter eave on the rear section of a gable roof. The shrine style *nagare-…

Braces that extend outward from the central posts to support the eave end *manekinoki …

Lit. "full moon shelf." A type of shelving *chigaidana 違い棚,…

Mullions *kumiko 組子 in a decorative pattern of connected,…

Lit. "a bean-jam dumpling shape." Also called hanjukei 半珠形. A half-spherical shape.

1…

Also called enchū 円柱.

1　A circular pillar or post. In the early periods (7th-13th…

Also written 丸窓, also called yoshinomado 吉野窓. A window which is circular or a circular window with a flat…

Also written 円面. A type of chamfer with rounded edges or corners, for example, on an otherwise square post. To produce this…

A log or pole. Some scholars believe that this term replaced maruhada 丸肌 (log skin). A generic term for a log,…

A post made from a log, that has either the bark remaining or its bark stripped off but is not pared off smoothly.

Cylindrical struts. One example is a bottle strut *taiheizuka 大瓶束, used…

Straight grain. The grain that runs parallel to the growth of the tree or at right angle to the tree rings. The quality of…

A gradual increase in the height of such structural members as rafters *taruki…

Also read to, sometimes written 枡. A box for measuring.

1　Any bearing block that is square…

Stones cut into a cube or close to a perfect cube. Shaped like the square wooden measuring device *masu…

Also pronounced togumi, sometimes written 枡組. Synonyms are *tokyō …

A right angle bisected exactly; for example, a hip rafter that bisects the corner framework forming a 45 degree angle on…

Also written 廻縁. A long edging board or finishing board that covers the junction point of a wall and ceiling. The finishing…

Also called oimawashijiki 追回敷. The placement of straw mats *tatami 畳,…

Also called mawatashi 間渡. Horizontal strips of split or whole bamboo or other type of wood that extend between the…

Sometimes called itabuki me-ita 板葺目板. Narrow boards or panel strips nailed over the joints of adjacent boards. When…

Also called meutsubari めうつ梁. The lower and shorter of two transverse members at right angles to the lintel *…

A roofed passageway that runs from front to back in a long building. One example separates the *…

Also mikakushibei 見隠塀. From mekakushi or mikakushi. Lit. "fence hidden from the eyes or…

A type of iron clamp 8 to 15 cm long that allows a top framing beam *uchinorinuki…

Blind mullions. Mullions that are set so closely together that what is behind them cannot be seen. Some blind mullions are…

Also called nemurimeji 眠目地. A butt or closed joint, where pavement stones abut so seamlessly that they appear to be…

Also written 面板. The flat faces of a board. The flat faces of the boards between the narrow horizontal strips *…

Also read as tsura, which means the surface or face of a structural member.

1　The chamfer…

Possibly a corruption of medo 目処. A gap between two things. A board used to cover or fill a gap is called mendo…

Also menkawa 面皮. A pillar or post *hashira 柱, rafter *…

The curved base of a bearing block.

Also pronounced mendori. The chamfered or beveled edge of a pillar, post, piece of furniture, piece of latticework…

A square post or pillar with chamfered corners.

Lit. "husband and wife windows"; double windows. A type of window used in a tea ceremony house *…

The meeting of two structural elements that butt together. Examples include sliding doors *…

Lit. "eye-gap door." A simple informal door that is composed of horizontal lattice yokogōshi 横格子 set fairly widely…

Lit. "eye-fastening post." Also mitsukibashira 見付柱; sumibashira 隅柱. A guide post. The corner post at the…

Also keshō-ita 化粧板. A flat, sheathing board attached to the underside of the eaves of a wooden dwelling. The…

A ceiling plan drawn exactly in relation to the floor plan, i.e., viewed as if a person were lying on his back looking…

Lit. "hidden from sight."

1　A structural member, part of which is not visible because it is inserted…

1　A surface of a Japanese architectural component that faces front.

2　Endpaper,…

Lit. "ear stone." Also called sode-ishi 袖石, tsuma-ishi 妻石. Stone string or stringer. Stones placed…

Also called miminuki 耳貫, *enmimi-ita 縁耳板. A finishing board…

Also called sanjūnoki 三重軒. Lit. "three eaves." An arrangement of three sets of rafters that support the eaves. The…

A drooping verge needed on buildings with gable style *kirizuma-zukuri…

A thick, penetrating tie beam about 6 cm wide used to reinforce the doors of storehouses *…

A decorative strut which is shaped like a plectrum used for playing the shamisen 三味線. The strut is capped with a…

An honorific word for *sudare 簾. Bamboo blinds that are used in shrines,…

Sometimes called mitesakigumi 三手先組. A three-stepped-bracket complex composed of three projecting sets of bracket…

Structural elements found within the same plane, or positioned in a straight line.

Also called mitsudogumi 三斗組 or mitsudo-zukuri 三斗造. A 3-on-1 bracket complex. It carries a wall purlin and…

Also mitsuki 見附.

1　A structural member, or a part of one, seen from the front. For…

Also called mitsumoya osame 三母屋納; mitsumoya-zukuri 三母屋造. The location or positioning of the base of a…

Also referred to as mitsumune-zukuri 三棟造. Lit. "three ridges." This type of construction is found chiefly in single…

A three-fold door. A door that has two sections, each of which has three leaves. The outer leaf is hinged to the middle leaf…

Also read mizukoshi shōji ; also called koshinashi shōji 腰無障子, mizu-itashōji 水板障子. The framework…

Also read mizukuri. A narrow opening cut out of the lower most beam of a balustrade *…

The rainbow beam *kōryō 虹梁 that is set between the pillars at the front of a…

Also called mizutare kōbai 水垂勾配, mizutorikōbai 水取勾配, mizutori 水取. A roof that has a pitch and…

Lit. "transmit support." A bracket, brace, modillion or console. A devise used to support an overhanging structural element…

Also written 裳層. Also pronounced shōkai. A pent roof enclosure usually one bay deep. Its structure may extend from…

Also called daiku kōji 大工工事.

1　All wood construction.

2　The…

Also mokkotsuzō. The wood framework of a building as distinct from the walls.

Sometimes written 杢目. Also called mokuri 木理 or kime 肌目. The wood grain exposed when a log is cut…

Wooden construction material including lumber, wood,and timber. All parts of heavy branches and tree trunks jukan…

Architectural structures constructed mainly of timber. The term is used even if the walls are plastered and the roofing is…

Also read monchū. Posts or pillars to which gates are attached.

A general term for a small room or simple structure where objects such as items of equipment, tools, containers and utensils…

1　The core of a building. Prior to the introduction of Buddhism the term moya meant the central…

Also *moya 母屋. Purlins; horizontal members placed between and parallel to the…

Also osagomai or usakomai 小狭小舞; 小来舞. Four slender wooden members, square at their inner ends, and circular…

Also *tsumairi 妻入; mukōzuma-zukuri 向妻造; *…

Lit. "camber." In traditional Japanese architecture, a roof surface or individual member with convex curves as opposed to…

A camber roof. A roof with convex curve from eave end *nokisaki 軒先, to ridge…

Also called mekurashikii 盲敷居, *mume 無目, nume 滑, or mume…

Lit. "smooth or flat." A prefix used to indicate that a threshold or sill *shikii…

Ridge tag. A narrow, wooden tag or marker, measuring from 30 cm to 1 m long, upon which pertinent information regarding a…

A ridge pole or ridge beam. The topmost horizontal member in a roof. It receives the upper ends of the rafters.

Ridge beam. Also called munegata, munagata, munegeta 棟桁; *…

Also read munezutsumi.

1　A general term used to refer to any tile stacked high in layers…

Also called *munagi 棟木. A ridge. Mune includes not only the main ridge at the very…

Also muneage 棟上; jōtōsai 上棟祭; jōtōshiki 上棟式. A ridge-raising ceremony that takes place upon…

The main ridge pole that extends beyond the end of a roof surface and abuts against the footplate ashimoto 足元, of…

1　In Japan's earliest compilations, the 8th century Kojiki 古事記 and Nihon shoki 日本書紀, a…

Lit. "hidden warriors." A small room closed off from the raised-floor area *jōdan…

Abbreviated term for musō renjimado 無双連子窓, also further shortened to musō 無双. A window made of narrow…

Sometimes abbreviated to mutesaki 六手先. Six-stepped bracket complexes as seen on the great south gate, Tōdaiji *…