Yokoza - Yokoza

Japanese: 横座 - よこざ

[1] 〘 noun 〙① A seat on which tatami mats or carpets are laid out horizontally . The top seat. ※Utsubo (c. 970-999) Fukiageshige: “Four people were summoned and sat in the side seat.” ※Joruri, Meido no Hikyaku (c. 1711), part 3: “I ran to Echigoya and looked inside, and Yaemon was sitting in the side seat, and he was saying his name.”② A seat on the side. A seat on the side. A seat next to someone. ※Gikeiki (mid-Muromachi period?) 4: “In the side seat where Tosa was sitting, the grass skirt of his armor was placed.”③ A seat for the head of the household to sit in front of the hearth. This is the only seat with a carpet laid out horizontally along the hearth. ※Zappai, Adonisu (1747): “I shave my beard and sit in the side seat, the head of a province.”④ (This is because the role is to keep the magistrate of the shogunate in the dark.) Another name for the kanjo ginmiyaku (final bureaucrat). [2] Kyogen. Various schools. A man who found a cow meets its owner, Bakuro , as he is leading it. Bakuro tells him that the cow is named Yokoza and that he had raised it in the Yokoza (upper seat) of the living room. He asks the cow to return it to him, telling the cow the story of Yokoza and other things, and the cow responds and finally takes it back. [Glossary] (Regarding (1) ③) (1) Nationwide, it generally refers to the head of the household's seat, which is located at the very back of the hearth when seen from the doma (entrance).
(2) In some regions, the guest seat and the wife's seat are called "yokoza," but this is the result of an etymological interpretation that the word was derived from the word "yokote-za" (side seat) from the seat of the head of the household, which was at the innermost part of the household, and is therefore considered a new term.

Source: The Selected Edition of the Japanese Language Dictionary About the Selected Edition of the Japanese Language Dictionary Information

Japanese:

[1] 〘名〙① 畳、敷物などを横ざまに敷いてある正座(しょうざ)。上席。※宇津保（970‐999頃）吹上下「四人召されて、よこざにつきぬ」※浄瑠璃・冥途の飛脚（1711頃）中「越後屋に走りつき内をのぞけば八右衛門よこ座を占めて我評判」② 横手の座席。横側にある座席。隣座。※義経記（室町中か）四「土佐が居たるよこ座にむずと鎧の草摺を居かけて」③ 囲炉裏の奥正面の家長のすわる席。この席だけ囲炉裏に沿って横長に敷物が敷いてあるところからいう。※雑俳・福寿草（1747）「髭ぬいて横座一国亭主領」④ (勘定奉行の横目につけて置く役であるところからいう) 勘定吟味役の異称。[2] 狂言。各流。牛を拾った男が牛を引いていると持主の博労(ばくろう)と出会う。博労は、この牛は自分が座敷の横座（上座）に置いて育てた横座という名の牛であり、返してくれるように頼み、横座の故事などを牛に語って呼びかけ、牛も返事をしてついに取り返す。[語誌]((一)③について) (1)全国的にみれば、土間（上がり口）から見て炉端の最も奥に位置する、家長の座を指すのが一般的である。
(2)客座や女房座を「横座」と称する地方も点在するが、これは最も奥の家長の座から見て横手の座との語源解釈が働いた結果であり、新しい呼称と考えられる。

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