section of a village; subdivision of a rural area
Used in rural addresses and place names to denote a subsection of a village or a small hamlet. Often appears as a suffix in official address notation, e.g., 大字 (おおあざ) and 小字 (こあざ).
In addresses, the section name (aza) sometimes follows the municipality.
この地域はいくつかの字に分かれている。
This area is divided into several subsections (aza).