A traditional cylindrical body pillow made of woven bamboo, used in hot weather to keep cool while sleeping. The term is a calque from Chinese; 'Dutch wife' is an older English equivalent for a similar bolster.
On summer nights, sleeping while hugging a bamboo wife is cool.
In old Japan, the bamboo wife was often used as summer bedding.
A general body pillow or hugging pillow, not necessarily made of bamboo or for cooling; 竹夫人 is specifically a bamboo cooling pillow.
Standard kanji spelling; literally 'bamboo wife'.
Variant spelling using 婦人 ('married woman') instead of 夫人 ('wife'); both are seen.
From Chinese 竹夫人 (zhúfūrén), literally 'bamboo wife'. The term entered Japanese as a direct borrowing, retaining the same characters and meaning.