Also called renzoku kiso 連続基礎. A type of direct footing that runs diagonally across corners and attaches to the…

The traces left by the pressure of a cloth on a clay surface. The character 痕 ato or kon means a mark left…

Lit. "wet veranda." Also called *ochi-en 落縁, kirime-en 切目縁. A…

A generic term for the process used to build a fire-resistent wall. Typically the wooden structural frame is entirely…

Windows made with plaster-covered lattice, commonly used in merchants' houses *machiya…

Also written 塗回床. An alcove *tokonoma 床の間, with three sides and the wall…

Also nuriatsu 塗厚. Depth of plastering. The ratio between the thickness from the first rough coat applied to the…

Also written 塗り屋, 塗家.

1　A fireproof building in which all the timber surfaces of the structural…

Large wooden shingles which are about 30 cm wide and are laid from the ridge to the eaves. Where the shingles need to be…

A load-bearing structural member. Refers to any structural element which supports the roof including pillars *…

Also called wadaruki 輪垂木. An open ceiling found in Buddhist temples of the Ōbaku 黄檗 sect. The architectural style…

Also called obisando 帯桟戸. A simple wooden door made of thin boards with rails at top and bottom and stiles, left…

Also obiki 尾引. Sleepers about 10 cm sq. that extend horizontally at right angle to posts that are erected on a sill…

A outer veranda constructed a step lower than the adjacent floor. It may also be constructed one step lower than a broad…

The junction point of a horizontal and diagonal structural member. For example, the point where the bottom of the hip rafter…

A tail rafter. A large rafter which usually extends through the second step of a 3-stepped bracket complex *…

Also called da-itabuki 駄板葺. A shingled roof which has bamboo battens and or stones to hold the shingles in place.…

Lit. "praying."
1　Structural elements arranged in such a way as to resemble the image of hands joined in…

Fan rafters. There are two arrangements: those that radiate from a center point on each side of the building; or those that…

A bottle strut *taiheizuka 大瓶束, with a sculptural decoration called …

A wall which is completely plastered so that the pillars or posts are not visible. This method is common for the…

1　A style or method of constructing a wall, in which the basic framework for plastering is made on the…

Shogun Ashikaga's 足利 book of tea ceremony implement arrangement, thought to have been written by Sōami 相阿弥 (1455-1525), a…

Also called tate-ezu 建絵図. A fold-up, three-dimensional plan drawn on paper, to show the interior of rooms assembled…

1　The interior or heart of something. The furthermost, innermost or ultimate space in a sequence of spaces…

An inner sanctuary. The part of a temple most remote from the main entrance. An example is the Keikyū-in 桂宮院, at Kōryūji…

Also called uketo 受斗. A bearing block, longer than but shaped very much like the *…

The depth or distance from front to rear of an object, piece of furniture, room, building, plot of land etc. It may be…

A general term for structural members that sustain pressure horizontally. Transverse beams *…

1　A gate mon 門, with multiple pillars with large intervals between them.
One example is…

Lit. "the front, surface, or exterior of something."
1　The front part of a house and the area around the…

Also *mune 棟, *munagi…

The second layer of a plastered wall. The first layer of a plastered wall is made of a rough clay-sod or mud-plaster mixture…

A type of saw horse on which to place timber so that a carpenter can cut it easily. Two posts are sunk directly into the…

Lit. "a big eave." An eave made of long base rafters *jidaruki 地垂木, which is…

An archaic term for a tie beam roughly 3.6 m long by 11 cm wide by 2.5 cm thick. Cedar or cypress were commonly used. Now…

A coved and coffered ceiling. The coved part has curved struts. It surrounds the coffered ceiling and at the same time…

A coved, coffered and finely latticed ceiling. When the height of a ceiling of the same type is increased by curved struts…

A coved ceiling. A ceiling raised by diagonally placed straight timbers *shirin…

Also orioki 折置. Method of assembly in a building's structural frame. A method of fixing a transverse beam *…

Neocene quartz. A type of soft volcanic tuff that is rough, porous and easily worked. It is a light, bluish greenish brown…

1　The board-floor veranda at the top of the steps of a shrine building. The veranda at the bottom of the…

Two or four-circular pillars right and left at each corner of the Buddhist altar to define the most sacred place in a temple…

Also called raigō-heki. A clay or wooden wall erected behind a Buddhist altar *…

Lattice arranged in a fret pattern, used especially on railings of balconies.

A transom. A rectangular opening, longer in the horizontal direction, constructed between the lintels *…

Also called no-ishizumi 野石積. Stones with an irregular shape. Those that are somewhat square are called nozura-…

Also referred to as ranzumi kidan 乱積基壇, ranzō ransekizumi 乱層乱石積, kuzure ishizumi くずれ石積 or simply…

Also called *ransekizumi 乱石積, waraizumi 笑い積. Randomly piled natural stones *…

Also written 櫺子窓. Lit. "a row lath window."

1　A window with vertical or horizontal wooden laths or…

Multiple windows. Two or more windows connected horizontally, or windows connected within one frame window with vertical…

Rensōmado means double windows. Two windows in line. Also called *meotomado…

A roofed corridor or passageway that connects one structure to another. It may also encompass an open area. There are…

A sunken hearth. A square box installed into the floor of a tea ceremony room to make a charcoal fire. The standard size…

A gate *rōmon 楼門, that appears to have two stories, but in reality is a high…

Commonly used abbreviation of shō roban 承露盤; also called masugata 枡形. Originally, an entire spire *…

1　An unroofed platform, a dais, or a projected veranda or balcony.
2　A nobleman's…

1　A hallwayor corridor within a building giving access to various rooms.
2　A passageway…

Also riku. A synonym for suihei 水平 meaning level.
1　Level building timbers.
…

Also called rokkaku yane 六角屋根. A six-sided roof that covers an hexagonal building *…

Also called hashirō 橋廊. A covered bridge, often with a resting place at the central point. Rōkyō can…

Also called koshikake daruki 腰掛垂木, ranji daruki 鸞翅垂木, or tenbō daruki 天望垂木.
A flying rafter…

Also *kannonbiraki tobira 観音開扉, double doors that open in one…

Wedges used on the right and left sides to strengthen and to secure a penetrating tie beam inserted into a pillar.

A type of gable roof *kirizuma-zukuri 切妻造. Also called…

Lit. "dragon vehicle." The round or oval section of a pagoda finial *sōrin…

Lit. "willow leaf shelf."
A single decorative shelf constructed a little below the cabinets, tenbukuro 天袋,…

Also written 寂.
1　An idea of beauty particularly important in the tea ceremony and haiku 俳句…

Also written 盃面戸. Sometimes called goki 呉器 or gokibame 呉器羽目. The space created between small bearing…

A fence supported by posts along its rear side, usually with more than four posts per one bay. The facing boards are placed…

Also read shamon. Lit. "sand crest." The technique of making a pattern or design in sand or gravel. The creation of…

The junction points on a door or window frame where the top rail *kamigamachi…

The transverse beams placed in a row at right angle to the large header beams *kabuki…

A simple door made of vertical planks with horizontal cross members that are about as wide as the vertical ties placed…

1　A structural element or tenon that projects out from the end of a board, post, or beam. Such projecting…

A purlin-bearing bracket arm; one that is inserted into the small bearing blocks *makito…

Also read sankarado. Paneled entrance doors introduced from China in the 13th to 14th century. They are associated…

A nail that is bent in three tines at a ninety degree angle. Like the twice bent nail *…

Roof framework composed of struts separating three tiers of transverse beams, each proportionately shortened in length than…

Lit. "three, four, five." A large size right-angled carpenter's square, ōgane 大矩, with a ratio of 3:4:5 cm. The two…

Lit. "a pole or rod." Aiso written 棹.

1　A lapped rod joint. The stacked tenon *…

Also written 棹縁天井. A board and batten ceiling. A simple ceiling made of light weight boards laid in one direction over…

Lit. "plate-like bearing block." A relatively flat, wooden block set beneath the large bearing block *…

1　Monkey. The monkey is represented in kyōgen 狂言 by a masked and costumed figure. The monkey mask…

Also called sanbashigo 桟梯子. A ladder made of wood or bamboo placed in an almost vertical position to reach the…

Lit. "monkey head pent roof." A pent roof *hisashi 廂, with pentagonal members…

A ceiling characterized by battens with six sides that are not all the same size. It is similar to a *…

1　The pyramidal shaped top of a post on the handrail of a wooden bridge. If there is only a heavy base…

Lit. "monkey headpost." A general term for timber members of pentagonal cross-section, created by chamfering away the upper…

A string, or stringer. The boards set diagonally on each side of a staircase in order to receive the treads fumi-ita…

Also called sasarako bame 簓子羽目. A traditional type of weather board used to cover exterior walls. The overlapping…

A very small common type of memorial stupa that is made of bamboo-grass sasa 笹 and used in many parts of Japan.…

Also called sashibari 指梁. The short visible purlins that jut beyond the barge course *…

Also written 差肘木 or 指肘木. One or more bracket arms *hijiki 肘木, inserted into the…

Also called sashikake yane 差掛屋根 or sashidashi 差出. A pent roof, shed roof or lean-to roof covering an…

Also written 差木 or 挿木. A generic term for the joining of timbers at right angle by inserting one into the other, most often…

Short purlins *keta 桁, about the length of one bay, inserted into the bargeboards…

A short purlin *keta 桁, that extends from the second strut within a hidden roof…

Lit. "insert ridge." Also written 指棟. Short, exposed ridges *keshō munagi…