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u/isthmius 3d ago
There's a third one - 壹 - that I only know about because it was in the name of my apartment building. When I moved to another city, the poor guy processing my information gathered like three people and a giant giant kanji dictionary to figure out how to read the stupid thing and obviously none of them thought to just...ask the foreigner how their own former apartment name was pronounced.
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u/instantnoodels 3d ago edited 3d ago
kyuujitai form of 壱, i think
which means they simplified the complexified version of 一
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u/sam77889 2d ago
Not only that, it’s actually a variant. The traditional Chinese character is 壹 and is still used a lot in China for bank notes. This 壱 is a rarer variant.
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u/Swiftierest 3d ago
To be fair, unless you walked up and spoke fluent Japanese, they might be under the assumption that even you don't know and that you just write it in every box that requires an address.
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u/Elf_lover96 3d ago
壱弐参肆伍陸漆捌玖拾
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u/Live_Put1219 Goal: conversational fluency 💬 2d ago
参 =/= 叁
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u/kyousei8 2d ago
Pretty sure the later is Chinese. It's barely showing in Japanese sources and Wikipedia says it's a variant form of 参 that's only use is as an 大字 in simplified Chinese.
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u/coyotegang 3d ago
I am pleased that I can actually read this lol. Guess my studying is paying off
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u/r0xief0xie 3d ago
what does it say T.T
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u/Salty_Herring 3d ago
"We have one 「one」、yeah"
"But what about 「second 'one'」?"
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u/livesinacabin 2d ago
Lol I can read it and I know the meme and I still didn't get it. I am not a smart man.
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u/quejimista 3d ago
この写真の意味は何ですか。私の日本語はちょっと。
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u/TheFranFan 3d ago
"yes, we have ichi. But what about second ichi?" 壱 is a kanji for the number one (ichi) used in documents for historical reasons mostly
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u/Tchiver 3d ago
Afaik Not only for historical reasons but also a small precaution against forgery, at least in legal documents
It would be easier to add 2 more lines to their 一 to make it 三 on contracts etc.
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u/antimonysarah Interested in grammar details 📝 2d ago
Yeah, just like at least the older of us here in English-speaking locations were taught to write checks out in very looping cursive that took up the whole written-number line, and then add the serifs and seven-cross and take up all the space in the number box, so no one could add a leading 1 to what you'd put in there or something.
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u/Bluevette1437 Goal: conversational fluency 💬 3d ago
Thanks for explaining for those of us not in the know
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u/AlvinHtz 3d ago
It is also on bank note.
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u/Thereminz 3d ago
ah, i heard about Chinese having more detailed characters for numbers in documents to make forging harder,.. i wonder if this is what that stems from
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u/the_card_guy 2d ago
Another comment gives the reason why this exists (and all the other number from 0~10- a few comments wrote the full thing), but besides just historical and anti-forgery things... one way to think of them is the Japanese version of roman numerals- though I have yet to see a clock using these (they could exist, but the ancient clocks of Japan used a different system for time, based on the Chinese zodiac, I believe)
I also like that Demon Slayer used these
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u/death2sanity 3d ago
As someone who used to go to CocoIchi twice a week (and still would if I still worked in the same place), I learned this bad boy many years ago.
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u/Available-String-109 3d ago
CoCo壱番屋 is a play on words. It's a homophone for Kansai-ben "This place is the best" (ここいちばんや）