Literally, triangulation
signal.
Triangulation is a method of measuring based on trigonometry
theory in mathematics.
It is used for calculating distance that
cannot be measured directly, for instance, the distance across a wide
river.
In the KENJI's days, many sankaku-hyo towers were built in
order to measure geographical distance of land in Japan.
They were
tall wooden towers with signals (lights) on the tops, which can be
easily marked from a distance.
You see many sankaku-hyos in
KAGAYA's paintings.
Lights of sankaku-hyos are painted for the real
stars which are larger or brighter in the Milky Way.
The
constellations of the lights are drawn just as they really are.
And
brightness of the lights are painted just as they really are in terms of
magnitude scale of 1~6 in astronomy, while towers are variously designed
according to respective magnitude of light.
Materials other than
sankaku-hyo such as signals, flowers, grasses, stones, or even sands in
the picture are drawn, in accordance with their respective brightness,
to signify innumerable smaller or farther stars in the Milky Way.
You may well be aware that
triangulation lights (stars) are really used in measuring distance of
the stars in astronomy.