Side sanctuary. Areas beside the main hall *hondō 本堂 of a Buddhist…

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

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

Also read *ekimon 掖門. A side gate or a small gate on one or both sides of a…

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

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

A frame constructed around the perimeter of a window or doorway; the opening into which sliding panels and other structural…

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…

Japanese style mirrors. Wakyō were developed as part of toilet sets in the Heian period. Previously large and…

Lit. "Japanese things." A term used in *chanoyu 茶湯 in…

A tenon referred to as channeled or as fingered. It is used on king posts *shinzuka…

Wanagikomi is an angle joint, also called an open mortise and tenon joint, a slip slot or finger mortise. It…

A wristlet. A decorative ring *kansen 鐶釧 found on the wrists of…

Short for warabidegata suihotsu 蕨手形垂髪. Strands of hair *suihotsu…

Also warabimon 蕨文. A design pattern which represents the bracken fern in spring when it gives out curling shoots.…

Also warabide. A style of ornamentation which features a curved design based on curling bracken shoots. It is found…

Stiff brushes made of beaten straw. Warafude were popular with the *Kano-ha…

Lit. "laughing old man." A Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing a…

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…

The surface of a member that was split vertically by pounding in a wedge *kusabi…

A sculpture technique used to carve a large hollow space *uchiguri…

Lit. "divided worship hall." A long structure under a single roof divided in the center by a passageway *…

Lit. "splitting gauge." The splitting gauge is used to mark thin pieces of wood along the grain so that it can be broken…

A wood statue technique used to join the head and body at the neck. The head and body of a Buddha statue are carved from a…

1　An extremely strong joint that uses a blind wedge-split tenon warikusabi hozo 割楔ほぞ to join two…

The interval between the vertical slats *tateko 竪子 and horizontal…

Handmade Japanese paper made from long natural fibers. Most commonly used fibers include mulberry kōzo 楮 (see *…

Eagle-nosed fierce old man. A Noh mask *nōmen 能面, representing a…

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

Also written 綿鼻. A molding *kurigata 繰形 in the shape of a silk-…

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

Also called *agokaki 腮欠, agokake 腮掛. A cogged right-angled joint…

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…

A pictorial subject taken from Arrowhead, the play from the *kabuki…

A pictorial subject taken from "Yadorigi" ("The Ivy"), Chapter 49 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale of Genji…

Lit. "eightfold fence." A type of double-screen sleeve fence *sodegaki 袖垣 in…

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

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

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

Also called a watari yaguramon 渡櫓門 or just *watari yagura 渡櫓. A…

The largest sized roof tile used to connect the turret corridors *watari yagura…

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

A Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing a small Chinese fox. Its thin-lipped, slightly…

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

Also written 屋形城.

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

Lit. "burned brush." A wooden stick with a burned tip. Like charcoal used in western style painting, yakifude is…

A bisque ware or unglazed pagoda. Plain, unglazed small pagodas are called deitō 泥塔, meaning mud pagodas.…

Also kaname-ishi 要石. Rocks and stones which in a tea garden *roji 露地…

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

Also read yakugi. The allocation of shrubbery in a garden, particularly applied to trees which set the mood of a…

Lit. "roles of branches." The branches of a flower or tree that are given a name based on their "role" in the structure of…

A generic term for all types of roof tiles which serve a special purpose. These tiles include: sleeve tiles *…

A gate with a gable roof constructed with two square or rectangular main posts and two square or circular secondary posts *…

A medicine jar, found on the palm of the left hand in figures of *Yakushi 薬師, the…

A type of *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 print which shows one or several actors in a stage pose or…

Lit. "picture books illustrating actors." Books that bound together actor prints, but also included theater and stage scenes…

Printed books criticizing actors' skills. Theater reviews were not published in booklet form until 1656 with Yakusha-no-…

Keka 悔過 is a term used in Buddhism meaning repentance of one's sins, and refers to the chanting of prayers to…

The name of the Buddha associated with healing. Sino-Japanese rendering of Sanskrit Bhaisajyaguru, meaning "Medicine Master…

A Buddhist temple hall housing a statue of *Yakushi 薬師 (Sk: Bhaisajyaguru), the Buddha…

Ch: Yaoshan Li'ao. A Zen 禅 painting subject depicting the philosophical debate between the Tang dynasty hermit-priest…

Ch: Yaoshan she chenzhongchen; lit. "Yakusan's Shooting of the Great King of the Big Deers." A Zen 禅 (Ch: Chan)…

Lit. "mountain indigo." Perennial plant 30-40 cm high, Mercurialis leiocarpa Sieb. et zuc., used to make a blue dye…

Lit. "mountain stone." A generic name for stones found or quarried in the mountains. Unlike sea stones *…

Also read Yamagoshi no Amida; Amida yamagoe (yamagoshi) raigō 阿弥陀山越来迎. Lit. "Amida…

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

Also written 楊梅樹. A brown vegetable dye senryō 染料 obtained from the evergreen tree Myrica rubra,…

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

Lit. "gardens in the style of Japanese painting." Also called sakuteikiryū 作庭記流 (gardens in the lineage of the…

Also written 大和絵 and 倭絵. A widely used description term which has carried various nuances in different periods, but…

The most commonly used style of mounting hanging scrolls *kakemono 掛物 in…

A fence made of widths of bleached bamboo spaced about 45 cm apart and held in place by bark. This type of fence is used in…

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

A type of bamboo lattice entwined with wisteria vine set in a window opening *…

An alternative term for a roof style found on Edo period farmhouses nōka 農家, called *…

Also musubitoji 結び綴じ, lit. "knot-binding." The simplest style of book-binding, and usually a type of pouch-binding…

Also read Yamanba. Oni-onna 鬼女 (demonic woman) or yama-onna 山女 (mountain woman) are used occasionally.…

Lit. "willow shelf." An asymmetrical arrangement of three decorative shelves tokowakidana 床脇棚 arranged in the…

Also yanagikakekugi 柳掛け釘. A nail hammered into a partially plastered post yanagibashira 柳柱 (see *…

Also yamadake 屋間竹. The bamboo purlins, about 20-30 cm in circumference, that are placed about 30-36 cm apart over a…

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…

A plane thought to have been the only plane employed in ancient times to pare and finish timber. Today carpenters do not use…

Lit. "water course." An archaic term for a shallow, curving garden stream. The term, found in the 11th-century garden manual…