Japanese Language Trivia Thread

Japanese
#1

Ever come across a cool word or phrase that you have no reason to memorise but want to share with the world?

Please share it here!

Inspired by what I learned today:
The original name for the Japanese month of October is 神無月, or “no god month.” According to mythology, October is the month in which the mother of all gods died so for 9 days in October all the gods in Japan go to Izumo Shrine and thus the rest of the country is without gods.
BTW I learned this from a podcast episode I listened to this morning, which explains all the traditional month names! I also learned that Satsuki and Mei are both called “May” because Satsuki means May and Mei is a homophone to the English word :smiley:

Looking forward to everyones cool trivia!

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#2

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#3

Anyway, todays word is
狐の窓
I learned it in a book I’m currently reading. Apparently it’s an old way of seeing through fox illusions. By making a window with your pinky and index fingers, you can look through it and see if the person you are looking at is really a kitsune transformed into a human through magic.

Edit: apparently I misunderstood a bit how you do it, heres a picture I found online

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from https://en.namu.wiki/w/여우창문 though originally seems to be sourced from somewhere else.

Edit edit: I just tried this and it really hurt my wrists LMAO

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#4

the phrase 尻に敷かれる(lit. to sit on someone/something, i think?) is used in reference to the woman in a male-female relationship being the dominant one, similar to “whipped” or “sat on” in english. it does not have an inherent sexual connotation and simply just refers to female-led relationships, though the use of 尻 may make you initially think otherwise (at least i did, lmao)
this is used in one of the example sentences for the N3 vocab word 敷く so if anyone was wondering what exactly that meant, here you go LOL

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#5

My brain is way too devoid of knowledge to be able to contribute cool stuff like this but these stories are crazy interesting. Love this kind of content.

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#6

That first picture is also how Aki summons the fox devil in Chainsaw Man!

I am often amused by how different combinations of kanji form certain words however. Like how 金玉 is slang for testicles.

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#7

I actually had a chance to learn a fun one directly from a Japanese friend:

「猫をかぶる」

It apparently means “to feign friendliness”.

The weird concept of someone “wearing a cat as a hat” helped me memorize it, but I don’t have the slighest idea about its origin.

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#8

I mentioned these on another thread, but I’d like to do a more detailed write up here!

丑の刻参り ushi no toki mairi / ushi no koku mairi
I think this is kind of similar to what we would call “the witching hour” in English, except it’s much more specific. Ushi no toki mairi refers to the hour of the ox (between 1 and 3am) (for reference, the witching hour is apparently 3 to 4 am, which I didnt know! I thought it was just late at night in general lol) and is a method of cursing someone by hammering nails into a sacred tree during the ox hour.
You can read more on Wikipedia: Ushi no toki mairi - Wikipedia

By the way, its a bit confusing to read, but in Edo period the periods of the day were associated with the Zodiac. It seems that the Japanese system was much like the Roman sundial system, where the length of time units were adjusted according to the season.

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source: Seasonal Time System | THE SEIKO MUSEUM GINZA

針供養 harikuyou, memorial service for old needles

This is an annual event where women bring their old and broken needles to a shrine or temple to thank them for their hard work.
You can read about it here! 針供養会 - 浅草寺

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#9

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#10

Now anime “Dragon Ball” makes much more sense: ドラゴンの金玉

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