Also pronounced tana.
1 Abbreviation of *misedana 見世棚.
2 Alternative to *tana 棚, in the sense of misedana.
3 A room or space at the front of a *machiya 町家, the urban houses of artisans and merchants, adjacent to the entrance and facing onto the street. The room served as a shop where goods for sale were displayed, as a business office, and, on occasion, as part of an artisan's workshop. In the late mediaeval and Edo periods, it generally had a raised floor of timber, sometimes covered with straw mats *tatami 畳, but often left uncovered, and in many cases (as in the surviving old machiya of Imaichō 今井町, in Nara) one step lower than the floors of rooms in the living area kyoshitsubu 居室部. In the case of retail shops, it was often made completely openable to the street, using a range of ingenious sliding, upward folding or otherwise removable wooden shutters. See *shitomido 蔀戸. However, when its functions were primarily those of an office, panels of latticework *kōshi 格子, were often inserted along the front of the mise as a visual screen. The mise often had a substantial joist-ceilin *neda tenjō 根太天井, supporting a low loft or attic *tsushi nikai 厨子二階, over it, for the storage of merchandise and the accommodation of staff. This kind of mise developed during the late mediaeval period, but it seems to have had its roots in the late Heian-Kamakura periods misedana. See also *shimomise 下店, *miseoku 店奥.
mise 店 (left) and *miseoku 店奥 (right): Old Kometani 米谷 house (Nara)
4 In the indigo dye manufactories aiya 藍屋, of Awa 阿波 in Tokushima prefecture during the Edo period, a room used as an office in the fireproof building *dozō 土蔵, where the indigo leaves were processed.
5 In the *yūjoya 遊女屋 of the pleasure districts in the Edo period, a ground-floor room at the front, facing the street, and screened with lattice-work *kōshi, where the courtesans and female entertainers sat, conspicuous in the brightly illuminated interior, to attract prospective customers.
6 By the Edo period, a general term for business premises, a shop, or a dwelling incorporating a shop.