osue 御末

Also written 男末.
1　A writing and service room for servants responsible for household chores in either the Imperial Palace or in the shoguns' and other aristocratic dwellings during the Kamakura and Muromachi periods. The room is also found in temples where a related emperor or another member of the imperial family had become a priest or nun monzeki 門跡. Its function resembled that of the private service room *nakai 中居, although the name osue indicates the higher rank.
2　A large room with a firepit provided for female servants in the private part of Edo-jō 江戸城 or in daimyō 大名 mansions. One example, no longer extant, was constructed at Lord Asano's 浅野 Edo mansion (1747). It was fifty-six *tatami 畳 mats in size with one mat being approximately 2 x 1 m.
3　The name of a cooking shed separate from the main house of a Kagoshima folk dwelling *minka 民家.