Japanese words for age
You may already know that Japan has the world’s longest life expectancy. But did you know that Japanese are also the most well prepared for their longevity with a vast array of special words for different ages? Although many (umm, almost all?) of these words are not commonly used, they’re still fun to know. And you never know what’s going to come up on a Japanese game show or in your izakaya parties. Here’s the list!
The only one you absolutely must use
20 years old :
In Japanese, you don’t say にじゅっさい, you say はたち.
Okay, if you’re just learning Japanese to communicate or for travel, you can stop here and you won’t be missing any vital information. The rest of these words are obscure at best and archaic at worst even for native Japanese (seriously, we’re talking post-JLPT-1
But if you’re like me and the thought of “archaic Japanese” gives you a jolt of excitement, or if you’re just curious, read on…
Words based on the calendar or life events
We’ll start with a collection of age words that are based on perceived or actual life events.
- 10 :
辻 髪 (つじかみ) – This is the name of a Japanese children’s hair style. - 15 : 笄年 (けいねん) – Girls only. 15 is the age when they could start using hairpins in their hair.
- 20 :
丁年 (ていねん) – Men only. Under the Ritsuryo law system, this was the age when a man became subject to official assignments (丁 ) (e.g. to X days of labor or taxes). - 40 :
初老 (しょろう) – This is when you start (初 ) becoming old (老 ). In English, we would say “over the hill.” - 50 :
中老 (ちゅうろう) – You’re in the middle (中 ) of becoming old. - 50 :
艾 年 (がいねん) – The age when your hair begins to turn white like a mugwort plant (艾 :よもぎ) - 60 :
丁年 (ていねん) -The word for the year a person entered the official assignments system was also used for the year when one left it. - 60:
還暦 (かんれき) - Literally meaning “revolving the calendar”, because the 10 calendar signs (十干 /じっかん) and the 12 astrological signs (十二支 /じゅうにし) realign every 60 years.- Note:
還暦 is 61 years old under the “counting age” system. (See Below)
- Note:
- 120 :
大 還暦 (だいかんれき) – The “big calendar revolution”, this means you made it twice around the 60 year cycle. Congratulations!
One from a Chinese poem
- 70 :
古希 (こき)
This age word is from a famous poem by Tang Dynasty Chinese poet Du Fu (Japanese:
酒 債 は尋常 行 く処 に有 り人生 七 十 古来 稀 なり
There is an English translation of this poem (
One for Shogi players
-
81 :
盤 寿 (ばんじゅ) - Because the 9×9 Shogi board has 81 places.
Kanji play
When your language has thousands of highly complex characters, and you’re bored in the winter with nothing but a bottle of sake, word games are just a natural occurrence. Hundreds of years of Japanese ingenuity brings us these linguistic gems:
- 48 :
桑 年 (そうねん) – The old form for桑 is 桒, which can be broken down as four十 characters and one八 character, adding up to 48. - 61 :
華 寿 (かじゅ) – Because華 can be seen as 6十 characters and a一 . - 66 :
緑 寿 (ろくじゅ) – Because緑 can be read as ろく, the same as六 (6). - 77 :
喜寿 (きじゅ) – The grass script form for喜 is 㐂, which is actually 3 sevens, but if you pretend one of them is a 10 it becomes七 十 七 = 77. - 80 :
傘寿 (さんじゅ) – The abbreviated form of傘 is 仐, which is八 十 = 80. - 81 :
半 寿 (はんじゅ) – Because半 can be broken down as八 +十 +一 =八十一 = 81. - 88 :
米寿 (べいじゅ) – Because the kanji can be broken down as八 +十 +八 =八十八 = 88. - 90 :
卒寿 (そつじゅ) – Because the abbreviated form of卒 is卆 , which is九 +十 =九 十 = 90. - 95 :
珍 寿 (ちんじゅ) – Because the left side of the kanji can be十 二 and the right八 三 (83 + 12 = 95) - 99 :
白寿 (はくじゅ) – Because if you take one (一 ) away from the kanji for 100 (百 ), it becomes白 - 100 :
百 寿 (ももじゅ) – This one’s obvious… (百 = 100) - 108 :
茶 寿 (ちゃじゅ) – Because the kanji can be broken down as十 十 (20) plus八 十 八 (88) - 111 :
皇 寿 (こうじゅ) – Because白 is understood to be 99 (detailed above), and王 is一 +十 +一 = 12. 99 + 12 = 111 - 111 :
川 寿 (せんじゅ) – Because川 looks like 111. - 119 : 頑寿 (がんじゅ) - Because
二 +八 (元 ) = 10 and百 +一 +八 = 109. 109 + 10 = 119. - 120 :
昔 寿 (せきじゅ) – Because廿 (=十 十 = 20) +百 (100) = 120.
And just to make sure that we never, ever run out of words…
- 1001 :
王 寿 (おうじゅ) – Because王 can be broken down as千 +一 . - 1007 :
毛 寿 (もうじゅ) – Because毛 can be broken down as千 +七 . - 1082 :
科 寿 (かじゅ) – Because科 can be broken down as千 +八 +十 +二
These words (that include
Chouju
In Japanese, longevity (
下 寿 (かじゅ) : 60… or 80中 寿 (ちゅうじゅ) : 80… or 100上寿 (じょうじゅ) : 100 or higher
Haka: a word with two ages?
瓜 =八 +八 = 16 (women)瓜 =八 x八 = 64 (men)
Soji
Japan also has a whole class of words ending in
- 20 :
二 十 路 (ふたそじ) - 30 :
三十路 (みそじ) - 40 :
四十路 (よそじ) - 50 :
五十路 (いそじ) - 60 :
六十路 (むそじ) - 70 :
七十路 (ななそじ) - 80 :
八十路 (やそじ) - 90 :
九 十 路 (ここのそじ)
Confucius says
The Confucian text The Classic of Rites also specifies a collection of words for specific ages. Sorry ladies, you’re only allowed to use the ones from 50 on.
- 10 :
幼 学 (ようがく) - 20 :
弱冠 (じゃっかん) - 30 :
年 壮 (ねんそう) - 30 :
壮 室 (そうしつ) (if you have a wife) - 40 :
強 仕 (きょうし) - 50 :
杖 家 (じょうか) - 60 :
杖 卿 (じょうきょう) - 70 :
杖 国 (じょうこく) - 80 :
杖 朝 (じょうちょう) - 81 :
漆 寿 (しつじゅ)
The stages of life
You may have heard the words
- 0 to 4 :
幼年 期 - 5 to 14 :
少年 期 - 15 to 24 :
青年 期 - 25 to 44 :
壮年 期 - 45 to 64 :
中年 期 - 65 onward :
高 年期
Note about
Confucian age words
More? Yes, Japan also offers another selection of age words based one passage from the Confucian analects, in which he writes:
At fifteen my heart was set on learning; at thirty I stood firm; at forty I had no more doubts; at fifty I knew the mandate of heaven; at sixty my ear was obedient; at seventy I could follow my heart’s desire without transgressing the norm.
Source: Electronic Library: The Analects of Confucius (look for passage 2:4)
- 15 :
志学 (しがく) - 30 :
而立 (じりつ) - 40 :
不惑 (ふわく) - 50 :
知命 (ちめい) - 60 :
耳順 (じじゅん) - 70 :
従 心 (じゅうしん)
Note: these words are only for men.
Counting age the Asian way
The traditional way to count your age in East Asian countries is to start at one, not zero like we do in the west, and to increment by one at the end of every calendar year instead of on the individual’s birthday. The system is known in Japanese as
One relic of the old counting system in Japan is the Coming of Age celebration, where boys and girls who turned 20 during the previous year all get to celebrate their passage into adulthood. Read the wikipedia article on Asian age counting if you’re interested.
Two kanji for “sai”
While we’re talking about age, I figured it would be good to include a short word about
Interestingly, if you’re talking about the age of an animal, you should write
Credit where credit is due
Here I’ve compiled a list of the links I referred to when I was locating and organizing all this information. Although I’m sure you’ll never need to know any more than I’ve covered here, there are a couple alternate forms and other super-obscure words out there (particularly on the Wikipedia page) if you’re for some reason totally crazy about this topic.
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