1.
tiered box; stacking food box; jubako
A set of square lacquered boxes that stack on top of each other, traditionally used for serving special occasion foods such as osechi (New Year dishes). Typically comes in sets of two to five tiers.
重箱に料理を詰める。
To pack food into a tiered box.
三段の重箱を用意した。
I prepared a three-tiered box.
正月には家族みんなで重箱に詰めたおせち料理を囲む。
At New Year's, the whole family gathers around osechi dishes packed in tiered boxes.
A traditional Japanese container consisting of stackable square boxes, usually lacquered. Most strongly associated with おせち料理 (New Year dishes) but also used for picnic foods and other special occasions.
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- 重箱に詰める: to pack into a tiered box
- 三段重: three-tier box (abbreviated form)
- 重箱読み: jubako reading — a kanji compound read with on'yomi + kun'yomi (a linguistics term named after this word)
- 漆塗りの重箱: lacquered tiered box
CULTURAL NOTE:
The traditional number of tiers is five (or four, avoiding the unlucky number), though three-tier sets are most common today. Each tier of an おせち重箱 traditionally holds specific types of dishes. The word also appears in the linguistic term 重箱読み, describing kanji compounds where the first character uses on'yomi and the second uses kun'yomi — just like 重(on) + 箱(kun).
SIMILAR WORDS:
- 弁当箱: lunch box — a single-compartment everyday container, unlike the stacking 重箱
- お重: abbreviation of 重箱, very common in spoken Japanese