Japanese kanji 舎

It points to lodging or a place where people are housed.

A related earlier graph, 舍, appears in inscriptions on bronze vessels from the early Western Zhou period, including one on a vessel known as the 令鼎. The Japanese form 舎 developed later from that graph.

The Shuowen Jiezi, an early Chinese dictionary, glosses 舍 as a dwelling by a market. Japanese compounds carry that lodging idea into names for institutions and shared buildings.

Why does 舎 appear in building words?

It turns a setting into a named housed place.

In Japanese, 校舎 is a school building; 寄宿舎, a dormitory; 官舎, official housing; 駅舎, a station building; 獄舎, a jail; and 兵舎, barracks. The first part names the institution or setting, and 舎 adds the housed-place sense.

That explains 舎 in 校舎 and similar compounds: it can name a place where a group studies, works, stays, or is held, not only a private home.

How are 舎, 舍, and 捨 connected?

The forms are related, but their uses are not interchangeable.

Postwar Japanese print made 舎 the familiar form; older Japanese materials also show 舍. Chinese writing uses 舍 as its standard form, so the shape can reflect language and print history.

In Mandarin, 舍 has a lodging sense and a separate sense of giving up or setting aside, distinguished by tone. Japanese writes that latter sense with 捨.