noun:

• three highest ranks in a ministry: minister, vice minister and parliamentary secretary ➜ 大臣【だいじん】・副大臣・政務官

noun:

• Hojo clan symbol; Hojo family crest (three triangles in a triangular pattern)

noun:

• three large cities (esp. Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka during the Edo period)

noun:

• fifty-three stations on the Tōkaidō (Edo-Kyoto highway in Edo-period Japan) - abbreviation ➜ 東海道五十三次【とうかいどうごじゅうさんつぎ】

noun:

• three famous ancient calligraphers: Emperor Saga and Tachibana (no) Hayanari and Kooboo Daishi

noun:

• fifty-three stations on the Tōkaidō (Edo-Kyoto highway in Edo-period Japan)

adverbial noun / temporal noun:

• two years before last (year); three years back (ago) - four character idiom

noun:

• Three Alls Strategy; Japanese scorched earth policy during the second Sino-Japanese War - 三光 is a ref. to a Chinese phrase meaning 'kill all, burn all, loot all'

expression / noun:

• perseverance prevails; three years on a (cold) stone (will make the stone warm) [literal] - proverb

noun:

• the three entertainment district enterprises: eating houses, geisha houses, meeting places for assignations, etc.

noun:

• ancient Japanese poetry form with three verses in a 5-7-7 moraic pattern

noun:

• difficult, dirty, and dangerous (work) - from きつい・汚い・危険
• apartment with three bedrooms and a kitchen

noun:

• life force, blood, and colourless bodily fluids (three elements that constitute an organism according to traditional Chinese medicine)

noun:

• full signal strength (on a cellphone); good cellphone reception; three bars [literal] - from バリバリ三本 - colloquialism

noun:

• Japan's Three Famous Mountains (Mt. Fuji, Mt. Tate and Mt. Haku) ➜ 三名山

noun:

• Japan's Three Famous Mountains (Mt. Fuji, Mt. Tate and Mt. Haku) - abbreviation ➜ 日本三名山

noun:

• Japan's Three Holy Mountains (Mt. Fuji, Mt. Tate and Mt. Haku)

noun:

• Japan's Three Holy Mountains (Mt. Fuji, Mt. Tate and Mt. Haku) - abbreviation ➜ 日本三霊山【にほんさんれいざん】

noun:

• sacred treasure; the three sacred treasures (sword, jewel, mirror) ➜ 三種の神器
• implement used in religious ceremonies

noun:

• Melon butterflyfish (Chaetodon trifasciatus); Redfin butterflyfish; three-banded coralfish; lineated butterflyfish

noun:

• Yatagarasu (mythical raven who aided Emperor Jimmu on his eastern expedition) - obscure term ➜ 八咫烏
• three-legged crow inhabiting the sun in Chinese mythology ➜ 八咫烏

noun:

• Yatagarasu (mythical raven who aided Emperor Jimmu on his eastern expedition)
• three-legged crow inhabiting the sun in Chinese mythology

noun:

• shigandang; stone tablet placed at a three-way street intersection (or dead end) to ward off evil spirits

noun:

• three-base hit; triple - Baseball term ➜ 三塁打【さんるいだ】

noun:

• the three grand national holidays (Prayer to the Four Quarters, Empire Day, the Emperor's Birthday; pre-1927) ➜ 紀元節・四方拝・天長節