butsudan means A Buddhist shrine, comprising a wooden cabinet with doors that enclose and protect a religious icon. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.
Why “butsudan” is a great word
BUTSUDAN — [Noun] A Buddhist household altar, typically a wooden cabinet with doors, designed to enclose a religious icon, scriptures, or ancestral memorial tablets. From Japanese 仏壇 (butsudan), from Middle Chinese 佛 (bjot, "Buddha") + 壇 (dan, "altar, platform"). Unlike a kamidana (a Shinto shelf-altar for kami, open to the world) or a stupa (a monumental reliquary mound), a butsudan is an intimate, enclosed sanctuary for domestic devotion. It is the scent of sandalwood incense curling from behind lacquered doors, the soft chime of a brass bell rung at dawn, and the quiet, polished darkness that holds a gilded Buddha—a partitioned sanctuary where the infinite is invited to dwell in the corner of a room.
Etymology
From Japanese 仏壇 (ぶつだん butsudan), from Middle Chinese 佛 (bjot "Buddha") ＋ 壇 (dan "altar", "platform").
noun
- A Buddhist shrine, comprising a wooden cabinet with doors that enclose and protect a religious icon.