View source for Burdock piling

{{short description|Japanese technique for building stone walls}}
[[File:Oozu castle ishigaki.jpg|thumb|250px|right|The {{transliteration|ja|ishigaki}} of [[Ōzu Castle]]]]

{{nihongo|'''Burdock piling'''|牛蒡積み|gobouzumi}} 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]] plants.<ref name=JAANUS>[http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/g/gobouzumi.htm Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System - gobouzumi]</ref><ref name=pacificu>[http://bcis.pacificu.edu/castles/home.html pacificu.edu - Japanese Castles] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130205065546/http://bcis.pacificu.edu/castles/home.html |date=2013-02-05 }}</ref> It was used to build {{nihongo3||石垣|ishi gaki}}, sloped stone walls which make up the foundations of many [[Japanese castle]]s, such as [[Osaka Castle]].<ref name=thinkquest>[http://library.thinkquest.org/C001119/defense/parse.php3?src=walls Thinkquest.org - The Castles of Japan: Walls/Moats] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111112180749/http://library.thinkquest.org/C001119/defense/parse.php3?src=walls |date=November 12, 2011 }}</ref>

Large rocks are fitted together over a mound of earth, and the remaining cracks are filled in with pebbles. This stone fill is called {{nihongo3|chestnut stones|[[wikt:栗|栗]][[wikt:石|石]]|kuri ishi}} 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]]s without causing significant wall damage.

This technique grew from an earlier Japanese wall-building technique known as [[disordered piling]].<ref name=pacificu/>

==See also==
* [[Japanese wall]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Japanese architectural elements}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burdock Piling}}
[[Category:Masonry]]
[[Category:Japanese architectural features]]
[[Category:Types of wall]]


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