Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Onomatope: The Fantastic World of Japanese Symbolic Words

Japan Book Review: Onomatope: The Fantastic World of Japanese Symbolic Words

ISBN: 978-4-8163-6734-2
Natsumesha Co. Ltd., 2019
208 pp; paperback

Meow….Woof woof….Crash!....Whoosh!
What just happened? Perhaps you imagined a cat and a dog getting in a fight, something falling over and the cat running away.
You concluded this just from reading four onomatope (or more correctly onomatopoeia) words, words that imitate the natural sounds of things. The words sound like what they describe.

Those who are already somewhat familiar with the Japanese language might know commonly-used words found in this delightful book, words like perapera (fluent), dokidoki (the heart pounding with excitement) and piipoo piipoo (the sounds of ambulance sirens). All of these are considered onomatope and are found in these pages.

With only a few exceptions, most of the Onomatope are given one page and fit the following format: on the top is the number (of the 201 discussed onomatope), followed by the katakata for the onomatope, followed by the romaji for the onomatope, followed by a cute, near-half-page drawing of the word used in a one-frame cartoon, followed by the kanji definition of the word, followed by that definition in romaji. Then at the bottom are example sentences using the onomatope in Japanese (kanji and kana) and the translation in English.

A greedy reader like me might have liked to have had kana for the kanji in the example sentences, but perhaps that is asking a bit too much.

Contents are divided into 10 categories, i.e., expressions and feelings, body movements, degrees and manners etc. The last chapter is dedicated to sounds, for example sounds that animals make. Did you know that horses say "hihiin" or that elephants say "paoon?" Shaka shaka is the sound that tambourines or maracas make.

To tell the complete, unvarnished truth, some of the words listed don’t really fit the onomatope definition, but readers can work around that. For example, assari is said to be "someone or something being straight forward and plain." Huh?
The book has plenty of spacing and is visually pleasing and, well, "fun."

In case you want to quicky find an onomatope that you previously learned, there is a handy alphabetical index in the back of the book. While not really a text book, this book can certainly be used that way. Its small size (5.8 x 4.1 inches) makes it easy to slide in your pocket and pull out any time.

Review by Marshall Hughes, author of Rural Reflections.

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