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…

Lit. "courtliness." The ideal of refined sensibility and courtly elegance associated with aristocratic society, particularly…

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 Azuchi-momoyama jidai 安土桃山時代. Lit. "peach mountain period." The Momoyama period (1568-1615) during which Japan…

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…

Lit. "to make a copy." A copy of an artwork. In the case of painting and calligraphy, it is specifically called *…

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…

Also Ashikaga jidai 足利時代. The Muromachi period (1392-1568). The period derives its name from a district in Kyoto which…

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 *…

1　An early term for long boards used on roofs. Records dating from the 8th century first used the terms…

Lit. "flowing."

1　The flow of the roof line from the ridge *…

The long side of a timber, or a timber placed in a lengthwise direction.

Longhouse, or row house. A house with a long ridge. Also indicates a house with a number of residences connected under a…

A transverse beam *hari 梁 made in two sections and coupled by a stub-tenon-…

Non-penetrating tie beams that are made to fit around pillars *hashira 柱 of…

A long rectangular beam cut along a diagonal cross-section and used as a non-penetrating tie *nageshi…

A sudden strong, upward curve at the corner ends of eaves. Especially characteristic of the Zen style *…

1　An interior wall partition.

2　The inner surface of a wall.

The inner sanctum located in the main halls *kondō 金堂 or *…

Also called moyabashira 母屋柱; irikawabashira入側柱. The pillars placed on the boundary between, or slightly…

1　A semi-formal entrance to Honmaru Goten 本丸御殿, the main palace in Edo-jō 江戸城. It was situated at the east…

1　A generic term for a door connecting two areas of a structure.

2　A door in the…

A rain gutter placed at the bottom point where two roofs meet. Similar to *narabidō 双堂…

Also called nakazan 中桟. A middle rail. A horizontal rail or rails inserted into stiles tategamachi 竪框 and…

A vertical, finishing strip of wood placed between the threshold *shikii 敷居 and…

1　A private service-oriented room in the mansions of aristocrats, warriors, retired emperors, abbots and…

Also called sakuko 柵子, kakusaku 角柵, marutazaku 丸太柵. The stakes used to support the fencing set in…

Also called chūgomi 中込, nakazuke or chūzuke 中付. A middle layer of plaster applied between the…

An architectural element that is bent or has a concave mid-point. A diagonal brace, for example, if less than 90 cm wide,…

Also read chūjikii. Lit. "middle sill." A sill on a shelf that divides a closet into two parts, lower and upper.…

Also called nakashōji 中障子, yoshiwara shōji 吉原障子, takeshōji 竹障子, nakanukido 中抜戸 and …

Also written 中縦桟. A vertical stile placed at the mid-point of a paneled door. A centrally placed horizontal stile is called…

Also written 中壷. The inner court between shop and living quarters in a merchant's house in the Edo period.

Also written 中具. Secondary or intermediate supports placed in the interstices between the bracket complexes *…

A generic term for struts *tsuka 束 that are set at the mid-point between two…

Also namirenji 波連子, yumirenji 弓連子, tatewaki renji 立涌連子. A type of latticework renji…

Western painting brought by the Portuguese and Spanish who arrived in Japan in the 16th century, nanban bijutsu…

Lit. "Southern barbarian art." Considered to be the first manifestation of direct Western influence on Japanese culture,…

The Southern and Northern Court period (1336-92). It takes its name from two separate antagonistic Imperial courts supported…

1　A store room in which clothes and valuables could be kept in the houses of the civil, ecclesiastical and…

The Nara period (645-794). In 645 a coup to restore Imperial authority was carried out by Prince Naka no Ōe 中大兄 (later,…

Also sudare shōji 簾障子. Sliding screens *shōji 障子, that are…

Also called nawakakesan or nawakakezan 縄掛桟, also pronounced nawakakezan. Lit. "rope-hanging beam…

Also called medake 女竹; ganchiku 含竹, shinobedake しのべ竹 or naedake 苗竹. Thin bamboo…

Lit. "root stone."

1　Also soko-ishi 底石 (base stone), chizen-ishi 地全石, dodai-…

A floor joist. A horizontal structural member made of cypress, cedar or pine, laid on a sleeper *…

A ceiling made over the first floor of a two story building. The ceiling has joists above it which form the structural base…

Horizontal supports which receive floor joists. Also called *ōbiki 大引.

Also called *manekihijiki 招肘木. A small bracket arm, a…

Lit. "root fetters." Also called umekasenuki 埋械貫, nekasenuki 根械貫, negaraminuki 根がらみ貫. Large flat…

Also *magoshōji 孫障子. A small sliding panel set within a standard…

Also nekoza 猫座; nekogi 猫木. A short piece of wood projecting from the upper part of a pillar or from the…

Also nezutsumi 根包. A wrap made of spaced wooden slats bound together with rope or metal strips, ornamented metal…

Era name. The practice of naming eras originated in China when the first era name, Jian wu (Jp: Kengen 建元), was given to the…

Also jibutsu 持仏 and uchibotoke 内仏. A Buddhist image which is kept at close proximity for personal daily…

The date of production of a work of art. Nenki are often accompanied by the signature of the artist shomei…

A mud fence (a type of earthen wall *dobei 土塀) constructed with…

Also nezubashiri, tokami 椙. Also called jiku-ukemagusa 軸受まぐさ. A horizontal timber with a…

A flat wooden device placed between the top of a post and under the timber flooring of a log storehouse *…

1　The audience's entrance at a theater or place of entertainment during the Muromachi period. Even when the…

Also nisei kidan 二成基壇. A stepped podium with two layers. The upper layer is called *…

A double-layered non-penetrating tie beam with the upper layer often as thick as the lower one. These are found as base tie…

Also called kakemonokugi 掛物釘. A type of hooked nail *orekugi 折釘. A…

Two-tiered transverse beams with struts between them to form part of a roof framework. The upper transverse beam is about…

A framework used especially in temples and shrines to sustain the roof. It is composed of double rainbow beams *…

A roof framework in which only smaller bearing blocks *makito 巻斗 are placed on…