noun:

• Japanese reading of a kanji (sometimes esp. in ref. to readings that do not correspond to the orig. Chinese meaning of the kanji)

noun / ~する noun:

• return to the United States

noun:

• term used to refer to Japanese-American children (nisei) who were sent by their parents to Japan before WW2 to receive their schooling

noun:

• mekuri karuta (card game popular in the late Edo period)
• hanafuda; Japanese playing cards (12 suits of 4 cards, each suit representing a month indicated by a flower) ➜ 花札

expression / noun:

• match made in heaven; perfect match; great coupling; bush warbler in a plum tree (a common motif in poetry and classical Japanese painting) [literal] - idiom

noun:

• udumbara (mythical Indian plant often identified with the cluster fig, Ficus glomerata)
• something very rare (from the legend that it flowers once in 3000 years)
• Japanese fiber banana flower ➜ 芭蕉
• green lacewing eggs ➜ 草蜉蝣

noun:

• board; plank
• sheet (of metal); plate (of glass); pane; slab
• cutting board; chopping board ➜ 俎板
• chef (esp. of high-end Japanese cuisine); cook - usu. as 板さん - abbreviation ➜ 板前・板場【いたば】
• stage (i.e. at a theatre)

noun:

• Chinese yam (variety of Dioscorea opposita)
• Japanese yam (variety of Dioscorea japonica)

noun:

• Asia-Pacific War (starting with the Manchurian Incident in 1931 and ending with the Japanese surrender in 1945) ➜ 十五年戦争・太平洋戦争

noun:

• Japanese chimera; mythical creature with a monkey's head, tanuki's body, tiger's limbs, and a snake tail
• White's thrush (Zoothera dauma) ➜ 虎鶫
• man of mystery; enigma

noun:

• someone whose kanji-writing ability has suffered due to overreliance on the kana-to-kanji conversion systems used to input Japanese text on a computer - IT term

noun:

• type Japanese folkloric monster (yokai), thought to be a trio of weasels who appear in a whirlwind to cut their victim
• cut caused by whirlwind

noun:

• Japanese bondage torture (hands and feet are behind the victim's back, and they are hanged from the ceiling with a rock on their back)

noun:

• large, perforated, turnip-shaped arrowhead cover made of Japanese bigleaf magnolia or paulownia; harmless arrow affixed with such a cover (that whistles when shot and is used to drive off evil spirits) - abbr. of 響目

noun:

• tatami room; tatami mat room; formal Japanese room
• dinner party in a tatami room (esp. when a geisha or maiko attends)

noun:

• system of guilt by association (especially that of Japanese election law, which stipulates that an elected official may lose his position if someone in his campaign commits a crime)

noun:

• stream (in a Japanese garden); narrow stream flowing through a traditional garden (esp. in a Heian period villa) ➜ 寝殿造り
• watering (potted plants, bonsai, etc.)

noun:

• speech; tongue; talk; eloquence ［弁・辯］

suffix noun:

• dialect; brogue; accent ［弁・辯］

noun:

• bento; Japanese box lunch ［弁・辨］ - abbreviation ➜ 弁当【べんとう】
• petal ［弁・瓣］ ➜ 花弁【はなびら】

noun / ~の noun:

• valve ［弁・瓣］

noun:

• Oversight Department; division of the daijokan under the ritsuryo system responsible for controlling central and provincial governmental offices ［弁・辨］ ➜ 太政官・弁官

expression:

• going well together; good combination - idiom

noun:

• family crest featuring a ring of bamboo with a sparrow in the middle
• design featuring bamboo and sparrows (motif in Japanese painting)

noun:

• Chinese soft-shelled turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis); soft-shelled turtle (Trionychidae)
• trap door located on the walkway in a kabuki theatre ［すっぽん］
• bilge pump (used on traditional Japanese ships) ［すっぽん］

noun:

• bottom of the sleeve - archaism
• height of the sleeve (of traditional Japanese clothing)
• secret; secret bribe ➜ 袖の下

noun:

• being unfit for duty in the former Japanese military (due to failing the conscription physical); person who is unfit for military duty

godan ~す verb / transitive:

• to write from top to bottom
• to write out (at a stretch); to write without a pause
• to rewrite classical Chinese in Japanese word order

adjectival noun / noun:

• big; large; drastic; substantial Antonym: 小幅

noun:

• full-width cloth (approx. 72 cm wide for traditional Japanese clothing; approx. 140 cm wide for Western clothing) ➜ 小幅・中幅

noun:

• Galapagos phenomenon; Galapagos syndrome; tendency of Japanese products (e.g. cell phones) to be designed specifically for the domestic market, which are therefore unsuccessful overseas and also vulnerable to competition from imports - because the Galapagos contains many endemic species ➜ ガラパゴス化

noun:

• black ships (i.e. Western ships, often painted with tar, that came to Japan in the 16th century)
• product, person, etc. arriving from the West and disturbing the Japanese market, etc.