Glossary

A render mixed with aggregate and washed before it sets so that the stones show at the surface, widely used on modern exteriors.

A stone finish made by striking the surface with a bishan hammer, whose head bears rows of small pyramidal points, leaving an even field of fine pits that gives a uniform, non-slip texture.

A platform built as a box of cut stone: a bottom course, upright posts and facing slabs, and a coping course along the top; used under high-ranking Buddhist halls, pagodas and stone monuments.

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.

A brickwork bond alternating a course of stretchers with a course of headers, so that bricks run through the thickness of the wall and tie it together.

A European timber-frame construction, and the look derived from it, in which posts, beams and braces show on the outer wall with the panels between filled with plaster or brick; in Japan it appears mostly as decoration on gables.

Wall or fence cladding of boards set edge to edge in a flat plane rather than overlapping; vertical boarding is recorded as tate-hameita-bari. It contrasts with overlapping shitami-itabari.

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.

A method of wooden sculpture in which the core of head and body is carved from a single block, even if arms or knees are added separately; characteristic of early Heian statues.

Deep Jōmon pots of the Middle Jōmon period made mainly along the Shinano River in Niigata, their rims crowned with four large flame-like projections and their bodies covered with raised swirling ridges.

A two-storey structure built with separate posts for each floor and no posts running through both, used for example when adding an upper floor to a single-storey house.

A plastering technique for storehouse doors and windows in which frame and door edges are built up in stepped layers of lime plaster that interlock when closed, keeping out fire and smoke.

A method of building out over a cliff, slope or water on tall posts that carry the floor; the stage of the main hall of Kiyomizudera in Kyoto is the best-known example, and it is also called butai-zukuri.

A plastering finish in which mortar or render is scraped with a spiked tool before it sets, leaving a rough, textured surface; common on modern Western-style buildings.

Masonry laid without mortar, the stones held by their own interlocking, and used where water must pass through, as in erosion-control dams and revetments.

A method of building stone walls with faces dressed to near-hexagonal shapes and fitted together in a pattern like a tortoise shell or honeycomb; laborious, it is used at conspicuous corners and fronts.

A Western roof truss with a single central post and diagonal braces forming triangles, able to span a wide interior without intermediate columns.

A stone wall whose faces are cut precisely so that the stones meet almost without visible joints, the most finely worked of the walling methods.

A relief picture modelled in lime plaster with a trowel, placed where it shows on a storehouse gable, sometimes with the plasterer's name recorded.

The lattice of fine battens joined vertically, horizontally and diagonally in shoji, transoms and lattice doors, and the joinery technique that forms geometric patterns with them.

A repair in which a building is taken apart member by member, damaged parts are treated, and the whole is reassembled, often uncovering inscriptions that date the structure.

Buddhist images carved directly into a natural cliff or exposed rock face; the Usuki group in Oita is the best-known example, and the Bungo region has a concentration of late Heian works.

A flower-like motif of four or five rounded lobes, used in family crests, door pulls and the ornament of gateposts; also written with other characters.

A technique of drawing a design in lacquer and sprinkling gold or silver powder onto it before it dries, divided into types by how the surface is finished.

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.

Masonry in which stones or blocks are bedded and backed with mortar or concrete so the wall acts as one mass; the opposite of dry walling and common in erosion-control dams, revetments and retaining walls.

A stone wall built from natural stones left almost unworked, so that the faces do not align and the gaps between them are packed with smaller stones.

A stone wall laid in level courses of even height so that the horizontal joints run straight, giving a regular face and widely used on dams and estate walls.

A roof truss with two vertical posts on the tie beam joined at the top by a straining beam, suited to wider spans than the single-post king post truss.

A geometric pattern of square spirals formed by lines turned at right angles and linked in series; traced to ancient Chinese bronzes, it appears on ceramics, textiles and architectural ornament.

A stone wall laid without even courses, so that the horizontal joints do not run through, allowing stones of differing sizes to be combined.

The framework of beams, posts, purlins and ridge set on top of the walls to carry a roof; Japanese records distinguish the native wagoya from the truss-based yogoya.

A technique of cutting thin pieces from the iridescent layer of shell and setting them into a lacquer ground to form a pattern that shifts colour with the light.

A way of building the outer corner of a stone wall, alternating the long and short faces of elongated stones course by course so that the corner locks together.

A way of laying square tiles or stones so that the joints run at forty-five degrees to the walls; used for the floors of Zen temple halls and for earth-floored areas and entrances.

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.

Finishing the timber without paint or lacquer, leaving the bare wood, a practice of shrine architecture in which the grain and the quality of the material become the design.

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.

In sake brewing, the starter in which yeast is cultivated in quantity to ferment the main mash; also called moto, it is made from koji, steamed rice, water and yeast in a dedicated starter room or building.

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 technique of laying gold leaf over lacquer used as an adhesive, giving Buddhist statues and some buildings a gold surface; records note it as a lacquer-gilt finish.

Carving that cuts right through a board so that the ground shows behind it, used on transoms and panelled doors to pass light and air while forming a pattern.

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

Stone laid tilted on its corner and dropped into the gap between two stones below, giving a diamond joint pattern; common on modern walls and dams.

Japan's traditional method of smelting iron from iron sand with charcoal, and the smelting works where it was done; the name also refers to the large foot-operated bellows that blew air into a furnace.

Cladding of boards set vertically side by side on walls and fences, usually with narrow battens nailed over the joints; the counterpart of horizontally lapped weatherboarding.

A framework of members arranged in triangles so that loads are carried as tension and compression; it spans wide openings without intermediate posts and is used in roof frames and bridges.

A stone wall of roughly split stones whose contact faces are hammered down to reduce the gaps, standing between unworked and finely cut masonry.

Setting posts to lean slightly inward rather than upright, so that the structure narrows towards the top and reads as stable, used on gateways and bell towers.

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

A method of laying stones or tiles diagonally in opposing directions to form a herringbone pattern, used on stone walls and on the lower walls of modern buildings.

Boarding in which alternate boards are set forward and back with their edges slightly overlapping; used for fences, dados and ceilings, it screens while letting air through and looks finished from either side.

A Western-style roof frame that carries the roof on trusses of tie beams and inclined rafters set in triangles, spanning wide without intermediate posts; the counterpart of the traditional wagoya.

A method of wooden sculpture in which the head and torso are built from two or more separate blocks joined together; suited to large, hollowed statues, it became the standard technique from the late Heian period.

Wall construction in which posts and beams are buried in plaster or covered so they do not show; the opposite of exposed-post walls and common on storehouses and buildings designed against fire.