Inorganic pigment. Insoluble pigments *ganryō 顔料 made from…

A board, usually of pine but sometimes Japanese cedar, placed between a normal sized host's mat *…

Also pronounced mukai-zukuri. A style used for the main building *honden…

One part of the joint used when eaves supports *kayaoi 茅負 or flying rafter…

Also mukōgiriro 向切炉. Mukōgiri refers to *hongatte 本勝手 and…

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.

Also pronounced kyōkō. A protective breast-plate found on Buddhist guardian deities *…

Ridge beam. Also called munegata, munagata, munegeta 棟桁; *…

A general term for the rows of decorative tiles used along the ridge of a structure. The tiles have many patterns, for…

Also osabashira 小狭柱 or futabashira 二柱. A generic name for pillars which rise from the ground to…

Also called munekado. A simple gate with two circular pillars, a gable roof *…

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…

Also read munagawara. Lit. "ridge tiles." A generic term for the tiles used to cover the apex of the roof.…

A generic name for the ornaments added to the ridge of a thatched or wooden roof to protect the roof-ridge, and to symbolize…

The main ridge pole that extends beyond the end of a roof surface and abuts against the footplate ashimoto 足元, of…

Lit. "tiles at the corners of the ridge." A generic term for the ogre tile *onigawara…

Lady Murasaki (978?-1014?), most famous writer of the Heian period and subject of several paintings. Her Genji…

1　Abbreviation of murasaki-iro 紫色. Purple color. Purple, as mentioned in the Nihon shoki …

1　In Japan's earliest compilations, the 8th century Kojiki 古事記 and Nihon shoki 日本書紀, a…

Also called *horadoko 洞床 or tsuchidoko 土床. An alcove…

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

1　A name given to the *amidadō 阿弥陀堂, a temple hall dedicated…

Lit. "Musashi 武蔵 plain." A part of the Kantō 関東 plain which extends south from Kawagoe 川越 City in Saitama Prefecture to…

Lit. "an unvoiced poem." Painting as a medium which conveys meaning without sound. The Chinese believed that although poetry…

1　A category of *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 prints that depicted battle…

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

Lit. "hidden warriors." A small room closed off from the raised-floor area *jōdan…

Also bukemado 武家窓, bugyōmado 奉行窓. Edo period windows with heavy vertical lattice bars, used in castle…

Also written 蒸子格子. A type of lattice *kōshi 格子 used on windows…

A type of window containing a lattice of *mushiko gōshi 虫籠格子, set into the upper part…

Also musō orekugi 無双折釘. A type of nail used to hang a scroll in an alcove *…

Abbreviated term for musō renjimado 無双連子窓, also further shortened to musō 無双. A window made of narrow…

Lit. "Corrective on Gardens of the Musō Lineage." A late Edo period treatise on landscape gardening. According to the…

Lit. "six jewelled rivers." Six famous rivers all named Tamagawa 玉川 located in six different Japanese prefectures. They…

Sometimes abbreviated to mutesaki 六手先. Six-stepped bracket complexes as seen on the great south gate, Tōdaiji *…

A Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing a fierce, old man. The shape of…

A pillared gate-like entrance to a Shinto shrine, developed around the 9th century. The most common type of shrine entrance…

Sk: Sudrsti, also Sonshōō 尊星王 or Hokushin bosatsu 北辰菩薩. Originally a deification of the Polestar, …

Translation of Sanskrit vidyaraja, meaning spell-king. Vidya literally means knowledge, but in Esoteric Buddhism mikkyō…

Lit. "a long board."

1　The board used as the base of the *…

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

An elongated hexagon or a decorative pattern consisting of a series of elongated hexagon shapes.

Longer than standard semi-cylindrical roof tiles used as coping tiles *kasagawara…

Lit. "flowing."

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

Also nagare hafu-zukuri 流破風造. A widely used style of main sanctuary *…

A sloped tenon, which is cut into the end of a beam. The top of the tenon is flush with the top surface of the beam. The…

A term used to group a number of artists and artistic styles associated with the city of Nagasaki 長崎 from the 17th through…

Also called nagasaki-e 長崎絵 or Nagasaki prints. Woodblock prints made in the port city of Nagasaki during the Edo…

1　A sink used for washing food before its preparation, for washing utensils after a meal, or for washing…

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

A room at Kumano Jinja 熊野神社, in Fukushima Prefecture, which is similar to a worshipper's hall *…

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

The smallest of three standard sizes of roof tiles yanegawara 屋根瓦, used during the 17th-19th century. The…

Also once known as Zaōdō 蔵王堂. The Nageiredō is a small building, constructed in the overhang style kake-zukuri 懸造,…

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…

Also called naginata mayu 薙刀眉 or 長刀眉. A type of carved molding *kurigata…

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

Buddhist priests' living quarters. Higher-ranking priests had two rooms one behind the other. The inner room was called the…

1　An interior wall partition.

2　The inner surface of a wall.

Also read naishimon. Traditionally, the timbergate through which virgin attendants entered a shrine. Structurally,…

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…

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

The inner section of the pendant *gatō 瓦当, attached to a semi-…

Small entrance-gates at Yoshida Jinja 吉田神社 in Kyoto. They are located in front of two small shrines behind the octagonal…

1　A miniature shrine within the sanctuary of a Shinto shrine.

2　The innermost…

A board which is inserted between the host's mat *temaedatami 点前畳 and the…

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…

According to the Shokunihongi 続日本紀, a gate leading to the waiting area for all officials, chōshūden…

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

2　A door in the…

A garden wash-basin set characterized by the use of gravel surrounding it. The gravel allows the water from hand washing to…

1　Also *daimebashira 台目柱. A small pillar which stands at…

A pair of sliding doors *hikichigai 引違, separating the front…

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

An urban vernacular residence *machiya 町家, characterised by a…

An inner earth-floored area found in *nakadoma machiya…

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

Also written 中子. Sometimes known as *ogata 雄型. Inner mould. When a metal statue…

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…

A tea ceremony room or house that contains a board *naka-ita 中板, set between the host's mat…

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

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

Also *hanakugi 花釘, tokonakakugi 床中釘 (see *…

Lit. "middle wicket." Also pronounced uchisomi. It is sometimes called kuguri 潜. A type of middle…

1　A place for hanging clothes in vernacular dwellings of the Kantō 関東 region.

2　…

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 …