noun:

• Red and White singing contest; annual contest between male and female popular singers on New Year's Eve (sponsored and broadcast by NHK)

noun:

• distance between two points; distance between opposite supports of arch, bridge; span

expression / ichidan verb:

• to establish a lead
• to distinguish (between); to ascertain or tell the difference (between); to discriminate

noun:

• point between life and death; verge of death

noun:

• ceremony on the fifth day of the 10th lunar month in which the emperor would watch prize archery (Heian and Kamakura periods)
• first firing of the bow (after the New Year or the reconstruction of the archery range (in military families))

noun:

• the milk of human kindness of the people of the traditional commercial and working-class neighborhoods - four character idiom

noun:

• any of a number of lists of three enlightened men, including (but not limited to): Buddha, Confucius and Christ
• Lao-tzu, Confucius and Buddha
• Fu Xi, King Wen and Confucius
• Yao, Shun and Yu
• Yu, the Duke of Zhou, Confucius

noun:

• rock fight; stone-throwing fight ➜ 石合戦
• custom by which neighbours or friends threw rocks inside a couple's house on their wedding night

noun:

• (fixing) boundaries for religious practices - Buddhism term
• prohibition (of items, people, spirits, etc. that would hinder Buddhist practice) - Buddhism term
• fence between inner and outer sanctums in a temple - Buddhism term
• short two or three-fold lattice around the front desk of a store - archaism ➜ 帳場格子
• barrier; dimensional barrier; containment zone; containment barrier; mystical barrier - esp. in games, manga, etc. - colloquialism

noun:

• Treaty of Shimoda (1855); treaty initiating official relations between Russia and Japan

noun:

• reverse side of a paper
• reading between the lines - abbreviation ➜ 眼光紙背【がんこうしはい】

noun:

• location where spirits and ghosts allegedly often appear; haunted place

noun:

• Qi (kingdom in China during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Period of the Warring States); Ch'i

noun:

• distance in the standings between two teams expressed as the difference in number of games won or lost - Baseball term

noun:

• exhibition game; friendly match; friendly - Sports term
• interleague game between the Central and Pacific baseball leagues - Sports term ➜ セ・パ

noun:

• Acanthurus (type genus of surgeonfishes and tangs in the family Acanthuridae which have a pair of sharp spines on either side of the base of the tail)

noun:

• nursing care level (between 1 and 5 based on assessment of care requirements) ➜ 要介護

noun:

• bardo; state (or period) of intermediate existence between one's death and rebirth (in Japan, 49 days) - Buddhism term

noun:

• bardo; state (or period) of intermediate existence between one's death and rebirth (in Japan, 49 days) - Buddhism term ➜ 中陰・四有

noun:

• bardo; state (or period) of intermediate existence between one's death and rebirth (in Japan, 49 days) - Buddhism term ➜ 中陰

expression:

• trying to straighten the horns of a bull, and killing it in the process; trying to correct a small defect and ruining the whole thing; The cure is worse than the disease - four character idiom

noun:

• Imperial New Year's Lectures (ceremony in which the emperor and members of the imperial family Their Majesties listen to expert lectures in the fields of human, social and natural sciences)

noun:

• Bellows Festival; festival for blacksmiths and foundries on the eighth day of the eleventh month of the lunar calendar, on which they would clean their bellows and pray

noun:

• Hundred Schools of Thought; general term for the large number of scholars and controversialists, and their respective schools, that flourished during China's Spring and Autumn period and Warring States period - four character idiom

expression:

• mixture of wheat and chaff; mixture of the good and bad; jumble of wheat and tares - four character idiom