Games - Kaibun

	Games - Kaibun

Kaibun (回文; lit. circle sentence) is a Japanese equivalent of palindrome, or in other words, a sentence that read the same from the beginning to the end or from the end to the beginning. The unit of kaibun is mora since the Japanese language uses syllabaries, hiragana and katakana.

Single word palidromes are not uncommon in Japanese. For example, Ku-ku (九九, multiplication table), Shi-n-bu-n-shi (新聞紙, newspaper), to-ma-to (トマト, tomato), etc. So kaibun usually refers to a palindromic sentence, but a passage can be a kaibun too.

The topic marker "wa" (は) can be treated as "ha" and small kana ゃ,ゅ and ょ are usually allowed to be interpreted as big kana や, ゆ and よ. In classics, diacritic marks are often ignored.

Famous Kaibun

Ta-ke-ya-bu ya-ke-ta (竹薮焼けた) - A bamboo grove has been burned.
Wa-ta-shi ma-ke-ma-shi-ta-wa (私負けましたわ) - I have lost.
Na-ru-to wo to-ru-na (なるとを取るな) - Do not take my naruto (spiral-shaped fishcake).
Shi-na-mo-n pa-n mo re-mo-n pa-n mo na-shi (シナモンパンもレモンパンも無し) - There is neither cinnamon bread nor lemon bread.
Na-ga-ki yo-no to-ho-no ne-bu-ri-no mi-na me-za-me na-mi-no-ri-bu-ne-no o-to-no-yo-ki-ka-na (長き世の遠の眠りの皆目覚め波乗り船の音の良きかな) Tanka

Rather than saying "read the same forwards and backwards", because Japanese is traditionally written vertically, Japanese people describe this as the word being written the same from top to bottom (ue kara yomu) and bottom to top (shita kara yomu).

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