壺こ中ちゅう

noun, noun which may take the genitive case particle 'no'

inside a jar

Literally 'inside a jar/urn'; often used in set phrases like 壺中の天地 (a world inside a jar, a secluded paradise).

• 壺こ中ちゅうの天てん地ちという言こと葉ばは、俗ぞく世せから離はなれた別べっ世せ界かいを表あらわす。

  The phrase 壺中の天地 refers to a separate world away from the mundane.

noun

coward; timid person

Figurative use: a person who is as if hiding inside a jar, i.e., a coward. Rare and literary.

• 彼かれは壺こ中ちゅうのような男おとこで、いざというときに頼たよりにならない。

  He is a cowardly man, unreliable when it really counts.