decorated pottery container for ancestral bones (Okinawa)
A traditional Okinawan funerary urn, often ornately decorated, used to store the cleaned bones of ancestors after a secondary burial. In Okinawa, it is also called じ〜しか〜み or じ〜しが〜み.
See also: 厨子
In Okinawa, there is a custom of placing the bones of ancestors into a zushigame after the bone-washing ceremony.
Compound of 厨子 (zushi, 'miniature shrine') and 甕 (kame, 'pot, jar'), referring to a shrine-like pottery container. The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the term is deeply associated with Okinawan burial customs.