also: きゅう · ひつぎ
noun
General term for a coffin or casket; used in both everyday and formal contexts.
棺は白い花で飾られていた。
The coffin was decorated with white flowers.
遺体は棺に納められた。
The body was placed in the coffin.
Rare variant kanji; reading きゅう is uncommon.
Kana spelling sometimes used for clarity or in children's contexts.
The kanji 棺 is a phono-semantic compound: 木 (tree, wood) + 官 (official, but here used phonetically). The reading かん is the on'yomi; ひつぎ is a native Japanese reading.