Japanese Word Entry

人柱
Kana:ひとばしら
Romaji:hitobashira
Definitions:
  1. person who died for a cause

  2. guinea pig (for a new product or service), test subject, sacrificial lamb, early adopter

  3. hitobashira, ritual human sacrifice by burying a living person under or near a large-scale construction project to invoke divine protection

Alternative form:
  • 人柱 【 じんちゅう (jinchuu) 】


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Look up 人柱 on Jisho.org

Chinese characters used in this word

person, man, people, mankind, someone else
Readings
Mandarin: ㄖㄣˊ (rén)
Cantonese: jan4
Japanese: ジン (jin)、 ニン (nin) / ひと (hito)、 -り (-ri)、 -と (-to)
Korean: 인 (in)
Vietnamese: nhân
Variants
Semantic variant form:

pillar, post, cylinder, support, lean on
Readings
Mandarin: ㄓㄨˋ (zhù), ㄓㄨˇ (zhǔ)
Cantonese: cyu5
Japanese: チュウ (chuu) / はしら (hashira)、 ことじ (kotoji)、 ささえる (sasaeru)
Korean: 주 (ju)
Vietnamese: trụ, trú