A coffin home (; Japanese: ) is a temporary

coffin A coffin is a funerary box used for viewing or keeping a corpse, either for burial or cremation. Sometimes referred to as a casket, any box in which the dead are buried is a coffin, and while a casket was originally regarded as a box for jewel ...

depository where the coffins containing the

cadaver A cadaver or corpse is a dead human body that is used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a living human being. Stud ...

s of recently deceased people are temporarily stored while awaiting transport to the place of burial. The term is also loosely used to refer to

bedspace apartment A bedspace apartment (), also called cage home (), coffin cubicle, or coffin home, is a type of residence that is only large enough for one bunk bed surrounded by a metal cage. This type of residence originated in Hong Kong, and primarily exists ...

s. ''Yih-jong'' (義莊) literally means "mansion of righteousness" and originally referred to any

charitable organization A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

. These charities were typically established by prominent families to promote their standing in the community. The designation ''yih-jong'' was first used by Fan's Yih-Jong (范氏義莊), established by

Song Dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

imperial chancellor Fan Zhongyan in his hometown

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

. Emulating Fan's model, many prominent families founded yih-jongs between the Song and

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

dynasties to support their clansmen and local communities, offering charitable services such as

orphanage An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...

s, free schools,

disaster relief Emergency management or disaster management is the managerial function charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actuall ...

, and mortuaries. The name ''yih-jong'' eventually became a euphemism for "coffin home" or "morgue" by the late 19th century. This is because they were the ''de facto''

undertakers A funeral director, also known as an undertaker (British English) or mortician (American English), is a professional involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks often entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as w ...

of dead people whose next of kin could not be found or were too poor to afford funeral services, and provided temporary storage and transport of the coffins and bodies of emigrants who desired burial in their place of origin. The establishment of

Tung Wah Coffin Home Tung Wah Coffin Home is a coffin home located upon the hill above Sandy Bay on Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong. The history of Tung Wah Coffin Home began in 1875 when it was built by the Man Mo Temple. The Coffin Home was originally locat ...

in Hong Kong in 1875, named "Tung Wah Yih Jong" (東華義莊) in Cantonese Chinese, firmly entrenched this euphemistic use. Coffin homes are primarily found in Greater China and places with substantial

overseas Chinese Overseas Chinese () refers to people of Chinese birth or ethnicity who reside outside Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. Terminology () or ''Hoan-kheh'' () in Hokkien, refe ...

populations. Most coffins that pass through the care of a coffin home are those of

migrant worker A migrant worker is a person who Human migration, migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work. Migrant worker ...

s who die in their place of work but who desired burial in their home villages. Coffin homes also provide temporary storage for deceased persons who are unable to afford a

funeral A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...

or whose relatives cannot be located.

References

Culture of Hong Kong Burial monuments and structures {{HK-stub