Glossary

The agency of Japan's education and culture ministry that administers cultural-property protection, the arts and religious affairs; founded in 1968 and based in Kyoto since 2023.

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.

In the Edo period, men granted samurai status while living in the countryside rather than the castle town; common in Tosa and Satsuma, their houses combined elements of farmhouse and samurai residence.

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.

In the Edo period, the house designated in a post town to lodge or rest daimyo on alternate attendance, imperial envoys and shogunate officials; run by local notables and equipped with formal entrances and raised reception rooms.

A town formed in the Warring States period around a temple, mainly of the True Pure Land school, enclosed by moats and earthworks; enjoying privileges akin to a temple precinct, it attracted merchants and craftsmen and prospered as a self-governing town.

One of the three Sen schools of tea descended from Sen no Rikyu, based at Fushin-an in Kyoto; its tea rooms Fushin-an and Zangetsu-tei have been copied in tea rooms across Japan.

A family that held the priesthood of a shrine by hereditary right, living near the shrine and conducting its rites; their houses sometimes show features such as a large household altar.

The village headman of the Edo period, responsible for collecting dues and settling disputes, whose house survives in numbers as an upper-class farmhouse.

A sub-temple within or beside the precinct of a large temple, originally a memorial or residence for an eminent monk; it belongs to the main temple but has its own halls and gardens. Common in Zen temples, it also occurs in other schools.