Kaibun


Kaibun is the Japanese equivalent of the palindrome, or in other words, a sentence that reads 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 palindromes are not uncommon in Japanese. For example, Ku-ku, Shi-n-bu-n-shi, to-ma-to, etc. Kaibun usually refers to a palindromic sentence, but a passage can be a kaibun too.
The topic marker wa 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.
Rather than saying "read the same forwards and backwards", because Japanese is traditionally written vertically, Japanese people describe the words as being the same when read from the top as when read from the bottom.

Famous kaibun

  • Ta-ke-ya-bu ya-ke-ta - A bamboo grove has been burned.
  • Wa-ta-shi ma-ke-ma-shi-ta-wa - I have lost.
  • Na-ru-to wo to-ru-na - Do not take my naruto.
  • Da-n-su-ga su-n-da - The dance is over.
  • Shi-na-mo-n pa-n mo re-mo-n pa-n mo na-shi - 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 Tanka - Everybody gets awakened from a long sleep and enjoys the sound of waves on which the boat is gliding along.
  • Yo-no-na-ka, ho-ka-ho-ka na-no-yo - The world is a warm place.
  • Yo-no-na-ka-ne, ka-o-ka o-ka-ne-ka na-no-yo - In this world, it's either looks or money.