purification, Buddhist food, room, worship, avoid, alike
斎 centers on ritual purity and dedicated spaces: purification, worship, and a room set apart for such practices. The Buddhist food sense is a specific application of purified offerings, while 'avoid' and 'alike' are less common extensions of the idea of setting things apart or making them uniform.
斎 is the modern simplified form of 齋. The older form combines 示 (altar, spirit) with 齊 (uniform, orderly), suggesting a purified, orderly space for ritual. The modern simplification replaces 齊 with 斉, keeping the core idea of ritual purity.
The outer shape 斉 suggests order and uniformity, while the inner 示 is an altar. Picture a perfectly arranged room with an altar at its center, used for purification and worship.
For サイ, imagine a purified room where a sigh of relief is breathed: sigh -> サイ, as the space is cleansed and set apart.
meals exchanged by parishioners and priests
study; library; den; home office; reading room
funeral hall
unmarried imperial princess serving at the Ise Grand Shrine in place of the Emperor
Sansai school of tea ceremony
Triodion; Lenten Triodion
Great Lent; Great Fast
abstinence (in Catholicism)
imperial event at which high monks recited the Golden Light Sutra to pray for national security and good harvests (held annually at the palace from the 8th to the 14th of the first lunar month, between the Nara and Muromachi periods)
last death anniversary for which there is a memorial service held (usu. the 32nd or 49th)
to worship; to enshrine
shrine fence
master of religious ceremonies
fence around a shrine (or other sacred area)
dining hall at a Zen temple or monastery; refectory
purification
purification; washing
fast day
priestly vestments, esp. white silk robes worn at festivals
unmarried imperial princess serving at the Ise Grand Shrine or the Kamo Shrine in place of the Emperor