敷居(しきい)

Japanese architecture: In traditional rooms with sliding doors (襖(ふすま) or 障子(しょうじ)), the 敷居(しきい) is the grooved bottom track the doors slide along. The matching upper track is the 鴨居(かもい).

Cultural note: 敷居(しきい)を踏(ふ)む (stepping on the threshold) is traditionally bad manners - the sill was seen as standing for the household itself, so guests step over it rather than on it. Stepping on it also wears down the groove and makes the doors stick.

Key idiom: 敷居(しきい)が高(たか)い

• Literally: "the threshold is high"
• Meaning: a place or activity feels intimidating or hard to approach
• Used of establishments that feel exclusive or expensive, and of hobbies and fields that seem to demand expertise
• Opposite: 敷居(しきい)を低(ひく)くする, to make something easier for newcomers to approach

Note on usage: Traditionally the idiom meant feeling too awkward to revisit somewhere after some failing or breach on one's own part. The modern sense - "too upmarket or too advanced for me" - is now the dominant one and is what learners will hear, though prescriptive style guides still object to it.

Related architecture

• 鴨居(かもい) - lintel, the upper track
• 襖(ふすま) - opaque sliding doors
• 障子(しょうじ) - translucent paper screens
• 和室(わしつ) - Japanese-style room