Also mizuguruwa 水郭. A castle compound *kuruwa 郭 built to protect…

A water-filled moat. Dry or empty moats are called *karabori 空堀.

Lit. "water fortification." A dike constructed in the low-lying land between two mountains and filled with water to create a…

The bamboo stalks, with the branches and leaves attached, that are placed facing the enemy in the bottom of a dry moat.…

A watch tower compound built on high ground apart from the main castle compound, from where the movement of enemy forces can…

Lit. "warrior run." The wide section built inside a wall on the level top of an earthen embarkment *…

The innermost compound *kuruwa 郭 of a castle. Sometimes called *…

Also *ni-no-maru 二の丸, ni-no-kuruwa 二の郭, naka-no-maru 中の丸.…

Castle plan; general term for the layout of a castle and its component structures. Lit. "stretched rope," the term is said…

The *jōkamachi 城下町, or town below the castle in the late medieval…

Also read nejō. Lit. "root castle." The base of military operations. When several castles comprise a unit, …

Lit. "second circle." The second compound outside of, or immediately adjacent to the main compound *…

A castle compound to the west of the main compound *honmaru 本丸. In a early-…

Also pronounced hōkadai. Also noroshidai 狼煙台 or noroshiba 狼煙場. A fire beacon; a stone platform on…

1　Also called *ishigaki 石垣; ishigaketsumi 石崖積; …

Lit. "cloth construction." Ashlar construction. Also termed nunozumi 布積 (cloth piling). A technique used in dry…

Lit. "belt compound." A long narrow castle compound. Obiguruwa were often constructed on the top of an earthen…

Lit. "fan slope." Also ōgikōbai 扇勾配 or miyakōbai 宮勾配 (shrine slope). The concave pitch of a stone…

Also written 扇子の縄. A castle plan shaped like a folding fan wherein the fortifications are distributed on either side of the…

Lit. "hillcastle." Also termed kyūryō jōkaku 丘陵城郭.
1　A castle built on a hillock, oka…

A castle wall that is undulates with indentations and protrusions. It is designed to allow for the strategic placement of…

A loophole in a wall *oribei 折塀 that zigzags back and forth like a folding screen *…

Also written 追手.
The front of a castle or fortification. Contrast with karamete 搦手 (the rear of a castle…

The front gate of a castle. Derive from *ōte 大手, the front of a castle or…

Also *ranzumi 乱積. Piling up unhewn rocks or random masonry. The earliest and…

Also called renketsushiki tenshu 連結式天守. A castle in which the principle tower or keep *…

Lit. "connected towers." Also termed renritsushiki tenshu 連立式天守. An extensive, highly-developed castle complex…

1　Fence. Read ki (also written 城) in the ancient period. A palisade of stakes aligned at regular…

Also read hasama. A loophole or porthole made in the wall of the keep, tower, or parapet to allow a castle to…

Lit. "loophole distribution." The number of loopholes per two meter (one ken 間) interval in a castle. Also refers…

A village castle. A medieval castle built in a low-lying village. Typically furnished with defensive installations.

Also termed seirō yagura 井楼櫓. A watch tower. Seirō were built from the Muromachi to the early…

1　Also read ishimon. A gate made almost entirely of stone, seen especially in Okinawa Prefecture.…

Also written 石墻門. Lit. "stone wall gate." A gate with either single or triple arch-like openings in a wall made of stacked…

A grass-covered earthen embankment *doi 土居. The embankment is shaped like a…

Lit. "four quarters piling." Also termed masugatazumi 桝形積 (square measuring box piling), and chikei-no-…

Also read edajiro 枝城. Also hajō 端城. Lit. "branch castle." A fortification, other than the main castle…

The process of castle construction, from site selection to the layout of the compound. Early modern military technicians…

Also termed kakubori 角堀 (a moat with squared off ridges), or unebori 畝堀 (the general term for a furrowed…

1　Edo period towns used as a stopping place by the Tokugawa 徳川 shoguns when they traveled outside the city…

A defensive square projection in a castle wall on one side of the castle entrance *…

Also termed sōgawa 総河, sometimes written 総側 or 総川, sōguruwa 総郭, 総曲輪. The enclosure that surrounds a town…

The outer moat of a castle that has two or more moats. Generally, the inner slope, nearer the castle, is steep while the…

Also termed sōtō tenshu 層塔天守. A multi-storied castle tower. A technically advanced tower employing the same careful…

Also read kado-ishi 角石. Lit. "corner stone." Long, rectangularly-hewn stones laid horizontally at the corners of a…

Lit. "corner tail stone." The stone that butts against the rear face tomozura 友面 of the corner stone *…

A castle entrance barrier *umadashi 馬出, erected at the corner of an…

A corner tower. Also written 角櫓. A timber-framed tower set on the corner of a castle wall where two stone walls jut out. In…

Moats dug in open areas some distance from a castle, to hinder the advance of enemy forces.

A sacrificial compound constructed in front of a main compound. A camp used to launch an attacking force. When a force moves…

A loophole *sama 狭間 cut in a wall about chest high to a standing soldier.…

Lit. "confronting castle." Also termed mukaijiro 向城 (facing castle) and *tsukejiro…

Also termed tamon-zukuri 多聞造, tamon'yagura 多聞櫓 (many listen tower) and tamon nagaya 多聞長屋 (many…

A pounded earth embankment. It was made of layers of earth mixed with water, pounded down and allowed to harden. The wall…

Also read tachi. A small castle shiro 城 and/or a wealthy provincial residence *…

A vertical dry moat. Also read tatsubori; sometimes written 立堀, 竪濠. A dry moat *…

Lit. "ladder-shaped compound plan." Short for teikakushiki nawabari 梯郭式縄張. A plan that fortified a castle entrance…

Lit. "tower central pillar." A pillar found in the main structure of castles, sometimes used singly and sometimes in pairs.…

Also called tenshukaku 天守閣, tenshuyagura 天守櫓. Also written 天主, 殿主, and 殿守. The principal tower-like…

The independent raised foundation upon which the principal tower *tenshu 天守 was constructed.…

Also called jūgan 銃眼 (loophole). A gun loophole or gun port. An opening through which to shoot a firearm from…

Also termed nawadarumi 縄だるみ (slackened rope). A concave shaped stone wall with a curved surface that resembles a…

Also read sotojiro. An outer castle or fortification.

1　A separately enclosed fortification…

Also written 取出, 取手, 塞 also 寨. A small-scale fort, fortification, or stronghold. A structure built near the main castle or…

Also written 壷狭間. Large bamboo stalks that are cut in section, painted and placed in outer castle walls and in the walls of…

An intersection barrier. A single barrier that is constructed to defend two entrances to a castle that have been constructed…

1　A fortification built as a staging camp from which to attack an enemy's castle…

A moon viewing tower of the *yagura 櫓 type found at a number of castles. Also…

Also read tsumejiro 詰城, or written 爪城 or tsume-no-shiro 攻の城.

1　The castle…

Same as tsunagijiro or tsunagishiro 繋城.

1　A type of branch castle *…

A decoy wall, or pseudo-wall. A wall that was built so as to hang over an earthen embankment or stone wall of a castle. When…

Tower connected with a gate or another tower. Examples connected to gates include Hikone-jō Taikomon 彦根城太鼓門 in Shiga…

Lit. "inner horse exit." A defensive installation *umadashi 馬出 constructed to fortify the…

1　The inner moat of a castle that has two or more moats.

2　The moat dug on the…

Also read naikaku. Also called naijō 内城. An inner compound. Generally, it refers to the central…

Lit. "pounded and inserted stone joinery." The most common stone work technique used to build a dry construction castle wall…

Lit. "inner square box." A type of walled compound *masugata 桝形…

A type of loophole *sama 狭間. An opening in a wall for soldiers to…

A main castle gate *koguchi 虎口 with a small barrier or compound…

A castle entrance barrier. A small barrier or compound, built in front of a castle gate *…

A Japanese castle. Refers to 25 castles constructed in various regions of Korea by the Japanese forces during the Bunroku-…

A side entrance to a castle. A small, inconspicuous entrance located on the side of a castle, in contrast with the main gate…

1　A connecting gallery or tower inside a square compound *masugata…

A widely used moat with sides that slope like an earthen embankment. The name is derived from the moat having a bottom with…

A guard tower set atop the corners of a castle's stone wall and other strategic positions overlooking the surrounding area.…

Also written 屋形城.

1　A structure that combines the daily living quarters of a mansion with the…

A mountain castle entrance. The entrance *koguchi 虎口 of a mountain…

Lit. "mountain castle." A castle built on a mountain to take advantage of the mountain's topography. One of the three main…

Lit. "mountain eye pounding and inserting piling." A dry construction method used to pile stones for a stone wall *…

A loophole for thrusting pikes and spears. Typically, they are installed in narrow locations beside main castle entrances…

A small castle or fortification built like a a country house or mansion yashiki 屋敷. In the middle ages, it usually…

An arrow loophole in a castle wall. Also sengan 箭眼. Characterized by a vertical opening about 45 cm high (1 …

Positive castle entrance or yang entrance. A generic term for various types of castle entrance *…

Also written 用害.

1　A place of strategic importance, having steep terrain that is easy to defend. In…

A lateral dry moat excavated crosswise in front of a mountain castle *yamajiro…

A side loophole of the *yarisama 鑓狭間 type for pike and spears. Typically…

Lit. "side arrow."

1　Attacking from the side. Also sokusha 側射, sokubō 側防. An…

Also written 横矢斜 and 横矢歪. Lit. "distorted rampart." A diagonal projection from a castle rampart. Used by defending troops to…

Also termed demasugata 出桝形. A defensive box-shaped courtyard *masugata…