書斎(しょさい)

書斎(しょさい) is a private room at home set aside for reading, writing, and study. The word carries a settled, slightly bookish flavour: it evokes shelves of books and a desk belonging to one person, and is strongly associated with writers, scholars, and professionals.

It is a room in a house, never a workplace. An office at a company is an オフィス or 事務所(じむしょ). Modern usage does stretch 書斎(しょさい) to cover a home office used for remote work, but the traditional sense of a place for intellectual or literary work is still what the word suggests.

Common collocations

• 書斎(しょさい)で仕事(しごと)をする: to work in one's study
• 書斎(しょさい)にこもる: to shut oneself away in one's study
• 書斎(しょさい)の机(つくえ): the desk in the study

Other rooms of the house:

• 居間(いま): living room
• 寝室(しんしつ): bedroom
• 和室(わしつ): Japanese-style room