also: きゅう · ひつぎ
General term for a coffin or casket; used in both everyday and formal contexts.
棺は白い花で飾られていた。
The coffin was decorated with white flowers.
The mourners carried the coffin to the hearse.
遺体は棺に納められた。
The body was placed in the coffin.
六人の男たちが棺を担いで歩いた。
Six men shouldered the coffin and walked.
棺 is the direct, plain word for coffin, while 入れ物 is used as a softer, euphemistic substitute in sensitive contexts.
棺 is the general word for a coffin of any material, while 石棺 specifically denotes a coffin made of stone.
棺 (a coffin) and 缶 (a can/tin) are pronounced identically as かん but are completely unrelated in meaning and written with different kanji.
coffin; casket
sarcophagus; stone coffin
placing a body in a coffin; encoffining
carrying out a coffin; funeral procession
placing in the coffin; encoffining
Standard kanji spelling; high-frequency news term.
Rare variant kanji; reading きゅう is uncommon.
Kana spelling sometimes used for clarity or in children's contexts.
The kanji 棺 is a phono-semantic compound: 木 (tree, wood) + 官 (official, but here used phonetically). The reading かん is the on'yomi; ひつぎ is a native Japanese reading.
coffin birth; postmortem fetal extrusion