月 – Moon in Japanese and Types of Moons
Moon in Japanese is pronounced tsuki. Let’s take a look at this in more detail, ways to talk about different moons in Japanese, and how it is related to Japanese culture.
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Moon in Japanese
Moon in Japanese is which is tsuki is written 月. This is the Kanji character for moon in Japanese. In Japanese Hiragana it is written つき. The word 月 not only refers to the moon but also months in Japanese. So, whenever you want to ask someone the month in Japanese, you would say what moon is it? I will explain more about this and other derivatives of 月 later below.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/Phases of the Moon
The moon is constantly changing daily throughout the month. For that reason there are many words for the type of moon in Japanese and English. Here is a list of some of the various names for different moons.
- 新月 – new moon
- 半月 – Half Moon
- 満月 – full moon
- 三日月 – Crescent moon
新月
The word for New Moon in Japanese is 新月. This is pronounced shingetsu and it means exactly the same thing. The Kanji 新 is the character for new and so 新月 means the same things as new moon.
半月
Again, 半月 or hangetsu is also pretty simple. 半 means half so 半月 means half moon.
満月
Full moon in Japanese is 満月 which is pronounced mangetsu. The Kanji 満 comes from the Japanese verb 満ちる which is hard to translate as one word. But, it basically means for something to be full, or at it’s upper limit.
三日月
Finally we have our crescent moon which is called mikazuki. In Japanese we can break 三日月 down a bit. The 三日 part in the word means three days or the third day.
The Months in Japanese
As I mentioned about tsuki is also not only the world for moon in Japanese but also month in Japanese. Whenever you ask someone the month you would use the word 月.
Also, when talking about individual months all of them have the Kanji 月 in them. An important thing to note, is that Kanji have different pronunciations and when 月 shows up in the names of months it is pronounced getsu. For more details on the individual months you can check out the links below
- 一月 – January
- 二月 – February
- 三月 – March
- 四月 – April
- 五月 – May
- 六月 – June
- 七月 – July
- 八月 – August
- 九月 – September
- 十月 – October
- 十一月 – November
- 十二月 – December
Rabbits on the Moon
Rabbits in Japan have a special connection with the moon in Japan. Since because of Japanese folklore rabbits are said to live on moon!
兎 – The Moon Rabbits in Japanese Folklore and Popular Culture
The Moon and Japanese Religion
There are many gods or Kami in the Shinto religion. One of the earliest that shows up is called Tsukuyomi. This Kami was born from the eye of one of the creator gods in Japan, Izanagi. Tsukuyomi as the name suggests, is the moon god or a god associated with night. He was born together with two other Kami, Susano-o, and Amaterasu. There is unfortunately not too much that is said about Tsukuyomi but there is about his sister, Amaterasu which is one of the most important Kami in Japanese culture and religion.
天照大御神 – Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess and Significance in Japan and Popular Culture
