kazashi　かざし

KEY WORD :　architecture / castles

Also written 風子, 翳. Lit. shade. Walls, embankments, or plants used to prevent the enemy from seeing the activities inside a castle. When a castle compound or enclosure *kuruwa 郭, or tower *yagura 櫓, serve this function they are termed kazashikuruwa かざし郭 and kazashiyagura かざし櫓 respectively. Commonly located outside the main gate *koguchi 虎口, of a castle, near the corners of corridors within the castle, and between separate compounds. Kazashi often provided cover for offensive thrusts by the castle garrison, in contrast to screens *shitomi 蔀, inside the castle gate which served a defensive function. For this reason, Edo period militarists referred to kazashi and shitomi as you 陽 and in 陰, meaning light and dark, or positive and negative respectively.

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