The kanji 敷 shakes out this way:
FU, shi(ku): to spread, lay, put down
Henshall says 敷 originally meant “to spread a cloth and apply the hand to smooth it.” Later, 敷 came to mean “to spread, lay” in a broader sense.
That explains why many 敷 words have to do with household items that seem close to textiles:
敷物 (shikimono: carpet, rug) to spread + thing
上敷き (uwajiki: carpet) over + to spread
下敷き (shitajiki: (1) mat, desk pad; (2) pinned under, crushed beneath) under + to spread
Strange what you find above (上) the carpet and what happens beneath (下) it!
Among the numerous 敷 compounds, a few caught my eye because they deviate so much from the textile pattern:
屋敷 (yashiki: mansion) house + to spread
A mansion is a spread-out house!
Also cool:
幽霊屋敷 (yūrei yashiki: haunted house)
ghost (1st 2 chars.) + mansion (last 2 chars.)If you break down 幽霊, “ghost,” you find to confine to a room + soul.
A ghost is a soul confined to a room and condemned to haunt it. How achingly sad! (Casper and company never faced anything like this. I guess Western ghosts have more freedom.) By the way, we’ve seen this “soul” before.
貸し座敷 (kashizashiki: brothel) to lend + seat + to lay
The first kanji makes sense—you can “borrow” a woman at a brothel! Here, 座 means “seat,” says Halpern. Is there a lot of sitting around in brothels? That’s never been my impression. Meanwhile, 敷 means “to lay,” which does match my idea of a brothel.
The last two kanji can stand alone as the word 座敷 (zashiki), which means “drawing room” or “Japanese-style room.” If you add one kanji, you find this:
座敷牢 (zashikirō: a room for confining someone)
drawing room (1st 2 chars.) + prisonWho is confined in a 座敷牢? The said ghost? According to Breen, this compound more specifically means “Edo-period room for confining criminals or lunatics”! If so, the breakdown sure is unexpected; did they supply criminals and lunatics with a dainty drawing room? I notice, too, that 牢 breaks down as a cow 牛 under a roof (
). That’s the Japanese (and Chinese) idea of a prison? Henshall leaves us high and dry here. But I note in various sources that 牢 can also mean “hardness” and has two kun-yomi, including kata(i). Several other forms of kata(i) also mean “hard”: 堅, 固, 硬. So a cow who goes to jail ends up hardened. Somehow it all makes sense.
