Glossary

A ceiling surfaced with thin strips of wood or bamboo woven in a plaited pattern, used in tea rooms and often set against other ceiling types in the same room.

A building or room for the tea ceremony, sized by the number of mats it holds and fitted with its own entrances and preparation space.

A triangular dormer gable set on the slope of a roof rather than at its end, used to give a keep or a large roof a marked front.

The stone laid horizontally along the top of a wall or a tunnel portal, throwing rainwater clear of the structure below and finishing the line of the elevation.

A covered watercourse carried beneath an embankment or a road, built on railways to take stream water under the line.

The pair of timbers crossing above each end of a shrine ridge, recorded together with the short billets laid along it and a quick way of telling a shrine hall from a Buddhist one.

An official who governed a territory on behalf of its lord, collecting taxes and keeping order for the shogunate, a daimyo or a hatamoto, whose house survives as the local seat of administration.

The unfloored part of a house at ground level, used for cooking and work, paired with the raised rooms; in a townhouse the through-passage of this kind has a name of its own.

A fire-resistant method of building in which a timber frame is encased in thick earthen walls finished with lime plaster, used for storehouses and also for shops and reception rooms.

The architectural manner introduced from China for the rebuilding of Todaiji, using arms inserted through the columns and saucer-mouldings under the bracket blocks in a boldly scaled composition.

A stone finish in which the edges of each dressed block are cut back to a narrow flat margin while the centre is left rough, used at the key points of tunnel portals and stone walls.

The narrow boarded strip outside the rooms of a house, mediating between interior and garden, and called by another name when it lies beyond the shelter of the roof.

The niche of a stone shrine or pagoda hollowed out to hold an image, set between base and roof, sometimes with the figure carved directly inside.

A lower roof leaning against the main body of a building and the space beneath it, housing verandas, canopies and lesser rooms, and recorded by the face on which it stands.

Buildings of the early Meiji period in which Japanese carpenters imitated Western appearance, combining traditional structure with Western motifs, common for offices, schools and banks.

A ceiling formed by a grid of moulded battens with panels laid over them, used in the inner sanctuaries of Buddhist halls and in the formal reception rooms of houses.

A carved board hung from the peak of a gable to cover the ends of the ridge and purlins, made in named shapes and one of the places where design shows.

A direct retainer of the Tokugawa shogunate ranking high enough for audience with the shogun, who governed a fief through an administrative house and a deputy.

The practice of raising a building and moving it whole to another position without taking it apart, recorded in date fields and descriptions as part of a building's history.

An arrangement in which the entrance is placed on the long side of a building, under the run of the eaves rather than at the gable end.

A small shrine housing a deity or image, set within an estate or by a roadside, in stone examples cut with base, niche and roof from separate blocks; distinct from a memorial hall.

A tunnel cross-section with a semicircular arch above and near-vertical side walls below, adopted as the standard single-track profile by Japan's government railways in the Meiji period.

A designation given to archaeological and historical remains such as shell mounds, tombs, palace and castle sites and former residences that hold high historical or academic value.

A pyramidal roof in which four slopes meet at a single point, with no ridge, used on halls and towers of roughly square plan.

A roof laid from thin layers of cypress bark, flexible enough to follow curved surfaces and long used on shrine halls and reception buildings.

A tiled roof laid with flat pan tiles and half-round cap tiles alternating, heavier than pantiling and used on temples, shrines and buildings of standing.

The ornament set behind a Buddhist image to represent radiance, either a disc behind the head or a full-body mandorla, made in wood or gilt bronze and painted or pierced.

A square hearth sunk into the floor of a farmhouse for heating and cooking, set in the earthen floor or a boarded room, and recorded under more than one name.

A projection built out over the stone base of a turret or keep, with an opening in its floor for striking directly at anyone climbing below.

A designation given by the national government to tangible cultural property judged important, covering both architecture and fine arts, and counted so that the total includes National Treasures.

A national designation for customs, folk performing arts and folk techniques judged particularly important, made without certifying any individual holder of the tradition.

A townscape district selected by the national government from among preservation districts established by municipalities, protecting a whole quarter rather than individual buildings.

The quantity recorded for a designated or registered cultural property, written with a counter that varies by the kind of object and entered on the certificate of designation.

A roof that is gabled above and hipped below, so the triangular gable appears only in the upper part while the eaves run round all four sides beneath it.

The administrative house of a lord without a castle, or of a shogunal deputy, serving as both office and residence and showing rank through its buildings rather than fortifications.

The pair of main posts flanking the doorway of a gate, heavy squared timbers that hang the doors and anchor the composition of a gatehouse or a yakuimon.

A window whose head is shaped in a flame-like cusped curve, a Zen-manner detail on temple buildings, most often cut into a plastered wall.

The space between two columns, and the unit used to count them; also a unit of length, so that records give a building as so many bays or so many ken wide.

A veranda whose boards are laid across its width rather than along it, common as the walkway encircling a shrine hall and usually recorded together with its railing.

A small open shelter in a tea garden, rarely more than two metres across, where guests sit and wait before being called in to the tea room.

A decorative metal cover placed over the head of a nail fixing the horizontal trim, often bearing a family crest and ranged where the rank of a room is displayed.

A veranda whose boards run lengthwise along it, common around the reception rooms of houses and often serving as a link between separate buildings.

The part of a shrine or temple front where the roof is carried forward to shelter the place where worshippers stand, recorded with the number of bays it spans.

A railing set along the outer edge of a veranda or a bridge, named in records according to whether it carries knobbed finials or is framed like bracketing.

A beam curved gently upward along its length, used inside temple and shrine buildings and across gable ends, and often carved.

A roof that slopes in two directions from a single ridge, closing each end of the building with a triangular gable.

A roof of thin split wooden shingles laid in overlapping layers, lighter in effect than cypress bark and used on shrine halls and tea-influenced buildings.

A roof of thickly layered grasses such as miscanthus or reed, so demanding to maintain that many surviving examples are recorded as covered provisionally with sheet metal.

A structural block set on a beam to carry the load above, splayed towards its base, and one of the places where temple and shrine carpenters concentrate their carving.

The assembly of blocks and arms set above a column to carry the eaves and step them outward, named by how many steps it projects.

A ceiling treatment in which no ceiling is fitted at all and the underside of the roof is finished and left in view, so that rafters and boarding become the design.

Gold beaten to an extreme thinness, laid over lacquer to gild images and interiors, and recorded either as gilding or as gold leaf applied over lacquer.

The bodhisattva of compassion, represented in a basic form and in many variant forms with multiple faces or arms, and also as an attendant of Amida.

A townhouse of the merchant quarters, narrow at the street and deep behind, standing shoulder to shoulder with its neighbours and often organised around a through-passage of beaten earth.

A sliding door of boards faced with thin horizontal battens at even intervals, used around formal reception rooms and at service gates for its plain, restrained appearance.

A roof with the ridge set off-centre so that one slope is short and the other long, common on small ancillary buildings and recorded under more than one name.

A square enclosure set at a castle gate that forces the approach to turn at a right angle, bounded by two gates and stone walls so that anyone inside is exposed on three sides.

A bracket set with an arm laid on the main block and three smaller blocks ranged along it, the basic form without projection, used widely on shrine halls and gates.

The preparation space attached to a tea room where utensils are washed and set out; in a farmhouse the same word can name the room used for water work.

A bracket projecting from a wall to carry a hood, a canopy or a ledge, made in timber, iron, stone or plaster and often ornamented.

A wooden tablet placed at the ridge when a building is raised, recording the date and the carpenters involved, and sometimes designated together with the building itself.

A window fitted with heavy vertical bars, set in the outer wall of a gatehouse to keep watch on the road and mark the estate as one of rank.

A bracket set projecting in three steps to carry the eaves, the deepest of the projecting types and reserved for pagodas, gates and buildings of standing.

A gate built together with rooms to either side, forming a single range across the front of a village headman's or samurai estate.

A horizontal member fixed across the outside of the columns, binding the frame and, in a reception room, marking the formality of the space.

The inner sanctuary of a Buddhist hall, where the principal image is enshrined, paired with the outer area for worshippers and divided from it by bracketing and transoms.

A wall finish in which flat tiles are fixed to the surface and the joints between them are raised in half-round ridges of lime plaster, most often on the lower part of a wall.

A room for storing clothes and household goods, set behind the reception rooms and sometimes doubling as a bedroom; in large houses a block of its own.

A curved gable formed by lifting part of the eaves line into a bow, set over a canopy or an entrance to mark the front of a building.

A townhouse construction in which the side walls and the eaves soffit are sealed in plaster for fire resistance, without the wall thickness of a storehouse and with the street front left open.

The highest tier of protection for tangible cultural property in Japan, given to items already designated as Important Cultural Properties that are judged to be of outstanding value in world culture.

A designation for animals, plants and geological features of high academic value, extending to habitats, native stands and protected natural areas as well as to individual specimens.

A shrine hall form in which the front slope of a gabled roof is carried down and forward to shelter the approach, recorded with the number of front bays prefixed to the name.

The ornamental tile set at the end of a roof ridge, sometimes inscribed with a date that records when the roof itself was worked on.

A transom filled with fine vertical bars set close together like the reed of a loom, used in formal reception rooms and above gate doors.

A designation for gardens, gorges, coastlines, mountains and other scenic places held to have high artistic or contemplative value, with gardens forming the largest group.

The Buddhist teaching of rebirth in the paradise of Amida, a broad current of faith rather than a single sect, embracing the Jodo and Jodo Shinshu schools among others.

A pair of columns set behind the altar dais in the inner sanctuary of a Buddhist hall, one of the two ways of closing the space behind the image.

The opening between the head of a doorway and the ceiling, admitting light and air and serving as a field for carving or fine latticework.

A small recess set at intervals into the side wall of a tunnel, giving workers inside somewhere to stand clear while a train passes.

The garden attached to a tea room, laid out as the path a guest follows before entering, with gates and small shelters set along the way.

Tangible cultural property entered on the national register rather than designated, protected through a lighter regime of notification and advice that complements the stricter designation system.

A small opening cut in the wall of a turret or rampart wall for shooting through, made in forms for the bow and for the gun, and sometimes concealed behind plaster.

A tiled roof laid with wave-profiled pantiles, lighter than the round-and-flat tiling it replaced and widespread on townhouses and ancillary buildings from the early modern period onward.

A ceiling of boards laid over thin battens running in parallel, simpler than the coffered kind and the commonest ceiling in Japanese houses.

A low boarded step between the entrance floor and the raised rooms, where guests were received, found in the houses of headmen and the well-to-do as a mark of standing.

A lime plaster mixed with binder and fibre, applied white or black, used on storehouse walls and worked into relief pictures.

A wall finish that leaves the posts visible on the outside, standing opposite the method that buries them in plaster and marking the difference from storehouse construction.

A window formed by leaving part of an earthen wall unplastered so that the lath beneath shows through, used in tea rooms and garden buildings in no fixed shape.

Horizontal weatherboarding, each board overlapping the one below, finished either plain or with notched battens holding the boards, and used on Japanese and Western-style buildings alike.

A brickwork bond that shows only the long face of each brick, used where a curved surface such as a tunnel arch has to be built.

The upper tier of the Historic Site designation, given to remains judged particularly important and carrying stronger obligations to restore damage.

A residential style built around a formal reception room with an alcove, shelving and a study bay, ordered by squared posts and horizontal trim, and set against the more relaxed tea-influenced manner.

A residential style that brings the manner of the tea room into the reception rooms of a house, replacing the squared timbers and formal trim of formal reception architecture with bark-edged posts, natural logs and earthen walls.

The raised dais in the inner sanctuary of a Buddhist hall on which the principal image is placed, named after the world-mountain of Buddhist cosmology.

The esoteric Buddhist school founded by Kukai in the ninth century, centred on Mount Koya and divided into many branches, named in records to characterise a temple.

The fusion of kami worship and Buddhism that shaped Japanese religious practice until the two were separated by government order in the early Meiji period, leaving traces in guardian shrines within temples and bell towers within shrines.

A vertical strut standing on a curved beam in gable framing, swelling towards its base and usually flanked by carved wings.

A double-skinned wall packed between the two faces to stop bullets, used around the outer walls of castle turrets.

A long single-tier range built along the top of a stone rampart, linking keeps and corner turrets and used inside as a corridor or store.

The sloping members that run from the ridge to the eaves to carry the roof, recorded by the number of tiers and the spacing between them.

A thick floor mat faced with woven rush, also used as the unit by which the size of a room is given, as in eight mats or four and a half.

The tallest tower at the centre of a castle, and where several turrets are linked around a courtyard, the group is named as a connected keep.

The curve of a roof or gable that combines a concave sweep with a convex swell; the swell alone is also recorded on roofs, canopies and gables.

The raised recess in a reception room where a scroll or a flower arrangement is displayed, and the feature by which the standing of the room is judged.

The doorway of a storehouse together with the space in front of it, where a heavy door hangs under a protective hood.

The earth-floored passage that runs from the street front to the rear of a townhouse, with the living rooms ranged along one or both sides.

A heavy door built up from earth over a timber core and finished in plaster, hung at storehouse doorways and castle gates to check the spread of fire.

A built-in desk with a paper-screened window projecting towards the veranda beside the alcove, one of the fittings that define the formal reception room.

A window hinged at the top and pushed open from below, set in pairs on the fighting face of a castle turret alongside the loopholes.

An arrangement in which the entrance is placed on the gable end of a building, so that visitors enter from the side where the triangular wall is visible.

A low upper storey without standing headroom, used for storage or sleeping, and a common feature of pre-modern townhouses.

The built face at the mouth of a tunnel, composed of pilasters, coping and string courses, and the part where design effort is concentrated.

An item designated together with a cultural property because of its close connection to it, recorded in the register with its own separate quantity.

A small fire wall raised at the gable end or above the roof of a townhouse, checking the spread of flame from a neighbour and, being visible from the street, advertising the owner's standing.

A shaft sunk vertically from the surface, combined with a horizontal drift to form part of a culvert or a tunnel.

The traditional Japanese roof frame, in which short posts stand on the beams to carry the purlins, recorded in contrast to the Western truss.

The architectural manner matured in Japan by the Heian period, named in contrast to the two styles brought from China in the Kamakura period, and marked by gentle eaves curves and restrained detail.

A gate with a turret built over it, set between stone walls, its upper level used as a bridge corridor or a fighting platform at the key points of a castle.

A gate form with supporting posts set behind the main pair and the ridge placed forward over them, framed by a lintel and paired beams, used for temple gates and the front gates of houses.

The Buddha of healing, shown holding a medicine jar in the left hand and usually enshrined as a triad with the bodhisattvas of sunlight and moonlight.

A roof that slopes on all four sides from a short ridge, so no triangular gable appears at either end.

A mat-floored room on the raised floor, most often the room where guests are received, fitted with an alcove and an anteroom and placed at the upper end of the house.

The architectural manner brought from China with Zen Buddhism, distinguished from the native tradition by densely packed brackets, cusped windows and panelled doors.