A master carpenter. A title applied to carpenters from the 16th century onward whose experience qualified them to be leaders…

Also read tōribashira 通り柱 or tate nobosebashira 建登せ柱. A single, uncut member that serves as a post or…

A wall-to-wall shelf located in the area known as *tokowaki 床脇, which is next to an alcove…

Also read tōrihijiki 通り肘木. A bracket tie beam. A long horizontal beam inserted into the middle of a bracket complex…

Also tōei zuhō 投影図法, tōei gahō 投影画法. Projection Drawing: a technique used for architectural drawing.…

A room behind the curtain where actors performing in a *kabuki 歌舞伎 play can rest before…

An 18th and 19th century Edo 江戸 merchant class ideal implying sophisticated knowledge, discernment, and culture. Eventually…

1　Metal fittings for a door. One is attached to the side of the door frame closest to the pillar or post.…

Also called komaikabe 小舞壁. A wattle and daub wall made of coarse mud plaster, ara-nuri 荒塗, usually mixed…

1　The parts of structural members that are hidden beneath ground level.

2　The…

The gap between the flat ridge tile *noshigawara 熨斗瓦, and the coping…

Also called tsuijibei 築地塀; tsuigaki 築垣 or 築墻. A formal style fence made by pounding a mixture of mud and…

A partitioning screen. Sometimes an opaque panel screen *fusuma 襖 or sometimes…

A wide rectangular stone strut about 2/3 the width of the stone panels *hame-ishi…

Also written 短束. Tsuka-no-ma 束の間 is a synonym for tsuka. An abbreviated form for tsukabashira 束柱…

Also hirakasugai 平鎹. Wood or metal cleats used to secure and strengthen the junction of the two sides of bargeboard…

Boards or tiles, tsukenoshi, set above and below the thick boards *aori-ita…

Also tsurido, 釣戸 or 吊戸. A door or window that is hinged along the top. It swings out from the bottom and is held…

The track grooves on a head jamb *kamoi 鴨居 and sill *…

The point where two downward sloping roofs meet to form a valley, under which gutters must be set to carry off rain water.…

Trim, molding, casings, cornices, etc. Trim at the edge of cupboards, doors, windows or on the sides of drawers. Also…

Also shortened to tsumakudari 妻降; also called hafu kudarimune 破風降棟 or shortened to hafukudari…

1　The gable pediment or the gable side of a building with a gable roof *…

A transverse beam that is visible in a gable pediment *tsuma 妻. It is one example of a gable…

Also called kowakido 小脇戸. Because they were hinged, they are also called hirakido 開戸. A side entrance. A…

The entrance of a shrine or temple building in one of the gable ends *tsuma 妻, constructed in…

The embellishment of gable pediments *tsuma 妻 by exposed structural members that were part of…

Intermediate bracket complexes. An arrangement of bracket complexes *tokyō…

1　A short curved rainbow beam *kōryō 虹梁 that connects a bracket…

A penetrating tie beam used to stabilize the lower part of exposed posts *subashira…

Also read tsukkomihozo. Also *sashikomihozo 差込ほぞ. Tsungomi…

A perfectly smooth, absolutely flat, unblemished surface. The term is applied to timber or stone structural members.

The exterior face of a stone rampart or a stone fence. In cases where both the front and back surfaces of a stone or wall…

Shortened form of tsure mitsudogumi 連三斗組. A variation of mitsudogumi 三斗組 (*…

The gap between an opened door or gate stile and the pillar to which it is attached.

Also written 吊木; called tenjō tsurigi 天井釣木. Long narrow strips of wood, like straps, that provide support for a…

Also written 吊壁. A narrow wall suspended from a ceiling to form the front and side of a boundary for an alcove set in the…

Also written 吊金物. Metal fittings that are used to suspend various types of structural members, which include: hanging struts…

Also called tsurimoto 吊元, jikumoto kamachi 軸元框. The stile, tatekamachi 縦框, of a door or gate…

Also jikumoto karado 軸元唐戸; moroori ryōbiraki 両折両開. Two doors *…

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

Pillars *hashira 柱 with an inward incline. Uchikorobi…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Also called tenba 天端.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A small door, usually beside the main door of a structure. Sometimes there is one on each side of the main door.

A long, narrow, vertical wall constructed between two or more pillars, or on each side of an entrance or a window.

Wooden screens placed at the back ends of side verandas *en 縁. They…

The left and right sides of a purlin *keta 桁.

Also called nihon kugi 日本釘. A square nail used during and after the Kofun period. The nail was made of hand-wrought…

Two bracket arms *hijiki 肘木 positioned at right angle to one…

1　Rope made by twisting together strands of straw. In clay statuary, the central wooden core *…

1　Also called enza, maruza 円座, or ukeza kanamono 受座金物. The metal or…

To cover or enclose with split bamboo. For example, found on the doors of a simple garden gate teimon 庭門 with a…

Also called wariguri 割栗, kuri-ishi 栗石 or guri ぐり (lit. "stones crushed like chestnuts"). Rock…

Also called *ireko-ita 入子板. A board that connects the rails and crosspieces…

1　Lit. "Japanese style architecture." The architectural techniques and styles introduced from China during…

A bracket arm *hijiki 肘木 that is characterized by curved surfaces on the…

A railing in the wayō style *wayō 和様. The horizontal…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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…

1　See *keshō yaneura 化粧屋根裏.

2　An…

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