noun:

• last day of winter in the traditional Japanese calendar (usually February 3 or 4); holiday for end of winter (accompanied by a bean scattering ceremony)
• last day of any season (according to the traditional Japanese calendar) - original meaning

noun:

• germ rice; half-milled rice; semi-polished rice; rice with the germ; rice polished to remove the bran but not the germ; milled rice with embryo buds - Food term

noun:

• type of long chopsticks used in the preparation of fish; type of long chopsticks used to hold the fish in carving knife ceremony

adverbial noun / temporal noun / suffix:

• ago; before (some event); previously; (minutes) to (the hour) ➜ 前【ぜん】
• in front (of); before (e.g. the house)
• head (of a line); front (e.g. of a bus); fore part
• in the presence of
• helping; portion ➜ 人前【にんまえ】
• privates; private parts

adverbial noun:

• in the first place; to begin with; from the start; originally; ab initio

conjunction:

• after all; anyway; actually; well, ...; ... on earth (e.g. "what on earth?"); ... in the world (e.g. "why in the world?") - used when bringing up something already mentioned

noun / ~の noun:

• beginning; start

expression:

• one cannot understand even a holy man's teachings without study; one cannot know the abilities of a great man without putting him to use; one cannot know the delicious taste of fine food without eating it [literal] - proverb

noun / ~の noun:

• the two views (of an object) referring to the same thing; being inseparable like the two sides of an object; two sides of the same coin - four character idiom

noun:

• traditional Koshogatsu ceremony where one person beats a fruit tree (usu. persimmon tree) with a pole while threatening to cut it down if it does not provide a plentiful harvest, with another person responding "I will, I will" for the tree ➜ 小正月・祝い棒

noun / ~する noun:

• (the privilege to have) an audience (with one's lord, a dignitary, etc.); interview (with one's superior)
• one's debut (first) appearance; debut (of a new product, work of art, actor, etc.)
• trial service (of a servant)

adjectival noun / noun:

• spare time; free time; leisure

noun:

• time (e.g. time it takes to do something) ［ひま・ヒマ］

adjectival noun / noun:

• time off; day off; vacation; holiday; leave
• quitting (one's job); firing someone; divorcing (one's spouse)

adjectival noun:

• (of one's time) free; (of one's business) slow ［ひま・ヒマ］

noun:

• leaving; departing ［いとま］ ➜ 御暇

noun / suffix:

• stuffing; packing - づめ when a suffix

noun:

• end (esp. the foot of a bridge)
• lowest-ranking guest at tea ceremony
• tea master
• endgame (esp. in shogi or used figuratively)
• sweet eel sauce - abbreviation
• middle-aged woman - archaism

suffix noun:

• appointment to a particular workplace
• using as the sole ground of judgement (judgment)
• continuing; keep doing for period of time - after the -masu stem of a verb

adjective:

• far; distant; far away; a long way off; in the distance
• distant (past); remote (in time); remote; far-removed (in time)
• distant (relationship or kinship); having little to do (with someone)
• far (from something else in quality, degree, etc.); not similar; way off
• hard (of hearing) - as 耳が遠い
• nearsighted - as 目が遠い

expression:

• better be the head of a dog than the tail of a lion; better be first in a village than second at Rome; better to be the mouth of a chicken than the rear end of a cow [literal] - proverb

noun / suffix:

• place; spot; scene; site - also pronounced どころ when a suffix
• address
• district; area; locality
• one's house
• point; aspect; side; facet ➜ いいとこ
• passage (in text); part
• space; room
• thing; matter

noun:

• whereupon; as a result - after the plain past form of a verb
• about to; on the verge of - after present form of a verb
• was just doing; was in the process of doing; have just done; just finished doing - after past form of a verb

noun:

• gō; traditional unit of volume, approx. 0.1804 litres
• gō; traditional unit of area, approx 0.33 metres square
• one-tenth of the way from the base to the summit of a mountain
• conjunction - Astronomy term ➜ 衝

counter:

• counter for covered containers
• counter for matches, battles, etc.

noun:

• servant; valet; footman
• someone who works in close quarters with the emperor or imperial family - archaism
• low-ranking official who works for the imperial family or nobility (under the Rituryo system) - archaism
• ox-tender for oxcarts; horse boy - archaism
• honorary junior official of the Imperial Household Department's Board of Ceremonies involved in miscellaneous duties related to ceremonies ➜ 宮内省

noun:

• Heian era court lady's song (accompanying men's oouta); court lady singing a kouta ➜ 大歌
• ditty; ballad; short, hummable, popular tune from Muromachi era to early Edo era ➜ 小唄・端唄
• kyogen kouta; style of kyogen song based on the Muromachi songs, often love ballad
• noh kouta; unusual style of noh song based on the Muromachi songs

noun:

• opposite side; bottom; other side; side hidden from view; undersurface; reverse side Antonym: 表【おもて】
• rear; back; behind
• lining; inside
• in the shadows; behind the scenes; offstage; behind one's back
• more (to something than meets the eye); hidden side (e.g. of one's personality); unknown circumstances; different side
• proof ➜ 裏付け
• opposite (of a prediction, common sense, etc.); contrary ➜ 裏をかく
• inverse (of a hypothesis, etc.)
• bottom (of an inning); last half (of an inning) - Baseball term Antonym: 表【おもて】