Also written 常居.

1　A principal everyday living room in traditional vernacular houses *…

A relatively small space elevated one step higher than the *jōdan 上段,…

Lit. town below the castle. A castle town. A town's fortress was located as a rule in a mountain, while the accompanying…

Also read Shōmeimon, called *Kōmon 閤門. A large, single-storied gate…

A mask representing an old man, jō 尉, in particular the old men masks of the *…

Lit. cord-mark period. The Jōmon period ran from ca. 10,000 BC-ca. 300 BC. The period takes its name from the decoration on…

A lantern with a canopy and a square fire holder higuchi 火口 supported below the middle base by a single natural…

Also 如鱗木, gyorinmoku 魚鱗木. Lit. curly wood-grain.
A beautiful, natural, wood grain, mokuri 木理, found on…

A standard height for a Buddhist statue. Abbreviation of one *jō 丈 and six …

1　A fence around a castle. See *saku 柵.

…

The upper level of a two-stepped podium *nijū kidan 二重基壇. The lower level is…

Special finishing plane. A smoothing plane used in the final stages of wood preparation to get a glossy surface on timber,…

Also written 縄牀. Also jōton 縄榻. A rough chair, originally from India, with the back or seat wrapped in rope or cord…

Lit. upper house. Principal part of farmhouse structure. The central portion of the cross-section of the structural frame in…

Principal transverse beam. The beam that receives the diagonal braces at the end of a gable roof. It also supports the ridge…

1　The posts which support the ends of the principal transverse beams *…

The purlins or plates *keta 桁, supported on the main frame posts *…

Lit. upper seat alcove. Also read kamizadoko. An alcove *tokonoma…

A story or level of a building, used especially in reference to a pagoda. For example, a *…

A roof tile style with a lotus pattern with double layered petals. The additional petals are placed between the leaf sprout…

A layered petal motif with one or more petals superimposed one on top of another. It is found on some pendants *…

The earliest (6th-12th century) Buddhist living quarters for priests' and monks. Arranged outside the sacred area containing…

Abbreviation of Shaka jūdai deshi 釈迦十大弟子. The Ten Chief Disciples of the historical Buddha *…

Ch: jiuniu. Lit. ten bulls. A Zen 禅 (Ch: chan) allegory in which Buddhist training, from first initiation to final…

Also called kasanehozo 重ねほぞ; also ryōhozo 両ほぞ. Lit. a stacked tenon. A tenon with a 2-stepped broad…

Sk: Ekadasamukha. Eleven-headed Kannon; a form of *Kannon 観音 with eleven miniature faces…

A unique, ten-story stone pagoda *sekitō 石塔 at Injōji 引接寺(1386) in Kyoto.…

Ch: shuxia meiren. A painting theme of a beautiful woman under a tree. The subject found throughout Asia may have…

A pattern composed of concentric circles on a pendant *gatō 瓦当 and parallel…

Also read shukōgata tōrō. Also written shikōgata 四光形. A type of lantern with a gently rounded canopy…

A pattern of parallel lines decorating the pendant *gatō 瓦当 of a broad,…

Lit. regular side arrow.

1　An arrow, gun or cannon attack from inside a castle on the left side of…

Also jūni yakusha taishō 十二薬叉大将, jūni shinshō 十二神王. The twelve protective deities *…

Twelve Deities. A group of tutelary deities consisting of various Hindu gods, which was incorporated into Esoteric Buddhism…

Sk: Cundi. Also Juntei Butsumo 准胝仏母, Shichigutei Butsumo 七倶胝仏母, or Butsumo Juntei 仏母准胝. …

Ten Kings. The ten kings of hell who preside at the gates of the underworld, assigning souls to heaven or hell. The Buddhist…

Ch: Shou laoren. A Chinese Taoist god known as the immortal of the Northern Song and also considered the personification of…

A kind of table game played with one king and 16 round, pawn-like piece of paper on each side of a divided board. The board…

Sixteen arhats *rakan 羅漢. The saintly ascetics who gathered at the death and…

Sixteen. A noh mask *nōmen 能面, representing the young Heike 平家…

Also read jūroku zenjin. Abbreviation of Shaka jūroku zenshin 釈迦十六善神 or Shaka sanzon jūroku…

Thirteen Buddhas. A set of thirteen Buddhist deities, including *myōō 明王 (Sk…

A thirteen-storied pagoda. The only wooden thirteen-storied pagoda extant is located at Danzan Jinja 談山神社 (1532) in Nara.…

Lit. a gate of more than one story. Jūsōmon is a gate with a large roof over the entire structure. A balcony,…

A general term for any ornamental band of cloth found on a bodhisattvas *bosatsu…

The decorative pattern of a ten-petalled flower which is used on roof tiles, particularly on round eaves tiles *…

A portrait, sculpted or painted, made during the lifetime of the subject. The most common was a *…

The framework for a mud-plastered wall. It consists of lath, bamboo crosspieces *…

A wall alcove. An alcove that has no recessed space and no appurtenances such as a framing board *…

A generic term for shrine fences *tamagaki 玉垣. A fence built at shrines from…

Also written 壁木舞. Thinly split lath set vertically and horizontally to form the framework *…

Small diameter posts set between two pillars to support horizontal circular laths called kabemawatashi 壁間渡. The…

The band of lotus petals *renji 蓮子 which encircles the seed pod *…

A type of curtain hung from the upper non-penetrating tie beam, uwanageshi (or kaminageshi ) 上長押 in temple…

Lit. walled bridge corridor. An archaic term for a type of corridor that connects two buildings in a Heian period…

Also shibai-e 芝居絵 and geki-e 劇画. Includes kabuki gekijō zu 歌舞伎劇場図 and *…

The most popular form of theatre among townspeople in Japan since the early Edo period. The form has its origins in the…

Also 衡木. A horizontal timber, lintel, or crossbar.

1　A lintel characteristic of gates called *…

The eighteen *kabuki 歌舞伎 plays selected as best by Ichikawa Danjūrō 7 七代市川団十郎…

Pictures of *kabuki 歌舞伎. In the broad sense of the term, kabuki zu…

Also written kōmon 衡門. A roofless gate composed of two square gate posts *…

Lit. stump. The term is used to designate trees which have no trunk but grow so that the branches come directly out of the…

Lit. turnip bargeboard pendant. A gable pendant *gegyo 懸魚 decorated with…

Also written as 兜. A helmet, usually made of iron. The earliest Japanese helmets were made in the Kofun period. There were…

Lit. helmet gate. A type of front gate in tea gardens *roji 露地 that resembles a…

Lit. bird-and-flower painting. Paintings of birds and flowers, flowers only *kakiga…

A short strut used at the corners of podii *kidan 基壇, or a dais *…

Also ka'enkō 火焔光. Lit. flame nimbus. A halo *kōhai 光背 on a…

1　Lotus petal design carved around the lower base kiban 基盤 of a lantern *…

Abbreviated to *kaeribana 反花. Also soribana 反り花. A…

Also called sakaguma 反隈 (or 逆隈) or teriguma 照隈. Lit. highlighting. Reverse shading. A shading *…

Frog-leg strut. A strut with legs spread like those of a frog. Kaerumata in the early Nara period developed from an…

Lit. mirror stone.

1　A stone which is placed behind a hand wash basin *…

Boards or panels planed to a perfectly smooth surface and employed for ceilings or flooring. An example is a thin board…

Lit. mirror room. A room separated by a curtain from the passageway hashigakari 橋掛り leading to a noh stage *…

Also kagamiita tenjō 鏡板天井. Lit. mirror ceiling. A flat ceiling made of smoothly planed boards shiraki…

Lit. mirror piling. A method of masonry used for a stone wall *ishigaki 石垣.…

A pictorial subject based on the "Flares" Kagaribi, Chapter 27 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale of Genji…

Guardhouses for soldiers placed at street corners in Kyoto and Kamakura during the Kamakura period. The earliest known …

A festoon. Also fesutun フェストゥーン, hanazuna sōshoku 花網装飾, or sagewa kazari 下げ環飾. A carved or molded…

1　A pictorial subject taken from one of the eighteen great kabuki plays *…

A plastered roof ornament on storehouses *dozō 土蔵. Located at the ends of…

A pictorial subject taken from "The Drake Fly" Kagerō (also translated as Dayfly or Mayfly), Chapter 52 of G…

Lit. key-shaped house. A widely used term for vernacular houses *minka 民家, of…

Purfled work. Lit. basket carving. A type of decorative wood carving used on beam projections *…

Floor or storey, and also a counter for floors in a building. For example, nikai 二階 refers to the second floor or…

Lit. shell mouth joint. A straight end-to-end joint *tsugite 継手 used for very…

Also called kaio'oi 貝覆. A shell-matching game played originally by nobles in the Heian period. A half clam shell…

A ceremony where a Buddhist image not normally on view is unveiled to all worshippers. Normally carried out during a…

A Tendai 天台 sect building that contains an ordination platform used exclusively for the ceremony to impart the Buddhist…

One or more steps composed of a tread dan ita 段板 or fumi ita 踏板 and a riser *…

Ch: jiehua. Lit. boundary painting. Both a painting technique and a painting genre in China. As a technical term,…

1　A trapezoid.

2　Also called *tsuiji…

Also kaigashira gegyo 貝頭懸魚. Lit. shell-head gable pendant. A type of decorative gable pendant *…

Also abbreviated to kaigen or kaigan 開眼, jugan, or jugen 入眼. Lit. eye-opening ceremony.…

Kaigetsudō school. A school of *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 artists in early 18th century who…

A school of painters active from the 16th century to the 19th century founded by Kaihō Yūshō 海北友松 (1533-1615) and passed…

Lit. Humble Words on Matters of Painting, a late 18th century polemic on painting theory by Kuwayama Gyokushū 桑山玉洲 (1746-99…