棺 means “coffin, casket”

かん · kan

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

カン

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 12 strokes

The story

Wood (木) beside 官, an official's hall: picture a wooden house built for one last occupant. 棺 is a coffin, and the Oscar-winning film Departures, おくりびと, follows a 納棺師, who prepares the dead and lays them in it.

Used in 棺桶 (kan'oke, coffin), 出棺 (shukkan, carrying out the coffin), and 納棺 (noukan, laying the body in the coffin)

More from Graves & Mourning

• 訃 news of a death
• 骸 bones
• 遺 leave behind
• 葬 funeral
• 喪 mourning
• 墓 grave
• 悼 grieve
• 墳 burial mound
• 弔 mourn
• 忌 shun
• 逝 pass away
• 殉 die for a cause

Learn 棺 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji

Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.