土間
Meanings
dirt floor; earthen floor room
Traditional Japanese architectural feature: an unpaved earthen floor area at the entrance of a house, or a room with such a floor, used for cooking, work, or as a transition space.
In the earthen-floor area of the old house, there was a cooking stove.
Just inside the entrance, there is an earthen floor area.
pit; parterre
In theater, the ground-level seating area in front of the stage, traditionally without chairs; equivalent to the pit or parterre in Western theaters.
The pit in kabuki was basically standing room.
Usage patterns
- 〈場所〉の土間に立つto stand on the earthen floor (of an entryway, kitchen, etc.)
My mother stood on the earthen kitchen floor washing vegetables.
- 土間で芝居を見るto watch a play from the pit seating (ground-level, in front of the stage)
People in the old days watched plays from the pit seating.
- 土間で靴を脱ぐto take off one's shoes in the earthen-floor entryway
I took off my shoes at the earthen floor and stepped up into the tatami room.
- 土間から座敷に上がるto step up from the earthen floor into the raised tatami room
The guest stepped up from the earthen floor into the tatami room and sat down.