is an advanced Japanese technique for building stone walls, named after the resemblance of the rough stones used to the ovate shapes of the blossoms of Japanese

burdock ''Arctium'' is a genus of biennial plants commonly known as burdock, family Asteraceae. Native to Europe and Asia, several species have been widely introduced worldwide. Burdock's clinging properties, in addition to providing an excellent mech ...

plants.Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System - gobouzumi
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It was used to build , sloped stone walls which make up the foundations of many

Japanese castle are fortresses constructed primarily of wood and stone. They evolved from the wooden stockades of earlier centuries, and came into their best-known form in the 16th century. Castles in Japan were built to guard important or strategic sites, such ...

s, such as

Osaka Castle is a Japanese castle in Chūō-ku, Osaka, Japan. The castle is one of Japan's most famous landmarks and it played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century of the Azuchi-Momoyama period. Layout The main tower ...

.Thinkquest.org - The Castles of Japan: Walls/Moats
Large rocks are fitted together over a mound of earth, and the remaining cracks are filled in with pebbles. This stone fill is called because of their small size. No mortar was used in the building of castle walls, which allowed the individual stones to move slightly during

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

s without causing significant wall damage. This technique grew from an earlier Japanese wall-building technique known as disordered piling.

References

Masonry Japanese architectural features Types of wall {{architecturalelement-stub

See also

References