noun:

• part of a kanji for which the role is primarily to represent the meaning (as opposed to the pronunciation) ➜ 音符

expression:

• if a man hears the Way in the morning, he may die in the evening without regret - from a quote by Confucius - proverb

noun:

• salt pan (used for boiling seawater to make salt)
• cooking a fish inside a salt crust - abbreviation ➜ 塩釜焼き
• candy made with a wrapping of sweetened rice flour (looking like a salt crust)

adverbial noun / temporal noun / ~の noun:

• whole life; a lifetime; all through life; one existence; a generation; an age; the whole world; the era

~の noun:

• (the only, the greatest, etc.) of one's life

adverb:

• anywhere; for all time; to the ends of the earth
• through thick and thin; come hell or high water; to the bitter end; to the utmost
• persistently; stubbornly
• in all respects; on every point
• thoroughly; exhaustively

noun:

• sumo management stock; one of the 105 titled trusteeships in the Japan Sumo Association; tradable share that entitles the holder to take part in the management of sumo - Sumo term

adjectival noun / adverbial noun / noun:

• one cup after another; cup by cup - four character idiom
• to the limit; to the fullest extent; absolutely the limit; the best one can do; breaking even - usually written using kana alone

expression / ichidan verb:

• to signal the winner of a match (by the referee raising his fan towards the winner) - Sumo term
• to declare someone the winner (of a competition)

adverb / ~と adverb:

• snugly (into hole, container, etc.); tightly (fitting, covering); firmly - onomatopoeia ➜ すぽっと
• (with a) pop (i.e. sound of a cork, etc. being pulled out of a hole in one movement); with a plop; (fall) straight - onomatopoeia ➜ すぽっと

expression:

• don't put the trivial ahead of the important; don't sweat the small stuff; don't bother with the details (before embarking on a great enterprise) - proverb
• read the fine print; be careful of the small things (before embarking on a great enterprise) - proverb

noun / ~する noun:

• failure (in an examination); failing to advance (to the next year) Antonym: 及第
• falling short of the standard; not making the grade

noun:

• address to the gods; type of song which spread from mountain hermits to the laity during the Kamakura era

noun / ~する noun:

• varsika (meditation retreat; usu. for 90 days starting on the 15th day of the 4th month of the lunisolar calendar) - Buddhism term

noun:

• Otenmon conspiracy (political incident in 866CE centered around the destruction by fire of the main gate of the imperial palace) - archaism

noun:

• big rock fight for children on the fifth day of the fifth month (adults also participated during the middle ages)

noun:

• big rock fight for children on the fifth day of the fifth month (adults also participated during the middle ages) - abbreviation ➜ 印地打ち

noun:

• performance or narrative based on the story of the Forty-seven Ronin (esp. the Kanadehon Chushingura, an epic puppet play first performed in 1748) ➜ 浄瑠璃

noun:

• year in the Buddhist order (after the completion of the first meditation retreat) - Buddhism term
• becoming more experienced with age; social status based on this experience

noun:

• strong local wind blowing around the Hira mountains in Shiga prefecture (sinks boats on the lake and stops trains of the Kosei Line)

noun:

• spaghetti Napolitana; Italian spaghetti dish made with a tomato sauce

noun:

• (on the) road; (on the) way; (in the) street

noun:

• the whole reel; the whole volume; the complete set

noun:

• in the face of the enemy; before the enemy

noun:

• the eight directions; the whole land; the whole world

noun:

• the last days; the final years; the last generation