Using Japanese Slang. Anne Kasschau
to the back, nekoze means round-shouldered or a stooped or bent back. This comes from an association with the round back of a cat (neko). Nekoze de megane (glasses) is a caricatured description of a typical hunched, bespectacled Japanese. When the stoop is very pronounced, the word semushi (humpback or hunch-back) is used, though this term is now regarded as discriminatory.
As mentioned earlier, debeso is a protruding belly button. This term comes from the expression heso (navel) ga dete iru (is protruding). Hesomagari or o-hesomagari (crooked or twisted belly button) means perverse or obstinate, or people with these traits.
After the face, it is the hands (te) that are usually the most visible part of one's anatomy. Not surprisingly, then, there are a good number of Japanese terms used to describe and make fun of the hands. Tenagazaru originally meant a gibbon or long-armed ape, and is now used derogatorily to refer to a long-armed person. Te in Japanese, incidentally, includes both hands and arms, as ashi is both feet and legs.
Futoi ude and its slang variations buttoi ude and marutanbo (log) refer to big, brawny arms. Physically slender arms are hosoi ude, but the slightly altered hosoude (literally, thin arms) refers to a woman's management of a shop or company. Corresponding terms for big hands are gotsui te, kumade, and gurobu. Gotsui is rough and thick, kumade is literally bear hand, and gurobu is baseball glove.
In a world dominated by right-handedness (migi-kiki), the left-handed minority (hidari-kiki) is sometimes the object of scorn and contempt. Gitcho (lefty) is a slang expression for a left-hander. Interestingly, gitcho is an abbreviated form of hidari-gitcho, the original form of which is hidari-giyō. Kiyō and its euphonic change giyō mean skillful hand.
In Japan, being left-handed has traditionally had at least one advantage. Lefties have generally been thought of as skillful at handicrafts. A sculptor who lived in the early Edo era and left many masterpieces, including the "Sleeping Cat" relief in Nikko, was given the name Jingoro Hidari.
For most of history, though, hidari has usually been thought of as symbolizing something bad or unfortunate, and migi just the opposite. The same is true of sinister and dexter in Latin. From the former, meaning left, derives the English word sinister with its connotations of misfortune and evil. Dexterity, which comes from the Latin for right, means handiness, skillfulness, and cleverness.
Though not directly related to a part of the body, hidari-mae (literally, left in front) means adversity, decline, or a business that has gone the wrong way. Ano ie wa hidari-mae ni natta means that family is going out of business.
This expression comes from the custom of wearing a kimono for one's last journey, (i.e., to the grave), hidarimae (left side over right side). This is a little confusing because, when the kimono is put on in hidari-mae fashion, it is done from the point of view of the living who put the kimono on the dead. Migi-mae, with the right side in front (left to the onlooker), is the one and only way for the living to wear their kimono. Dress with care.
Hidari-maki (counter-clockwise) colloquially means a screwball. A person with a counter-clockwise cowlick on his head is considered nutty or eccentric.
A derogatory expression often used to describe the skin (hada) is samehada (shark skin). Like other cultures, the Japanese value smooth and compact skin very highly. Torihada (literally, chicken skin) means gooseflesh. A common synonym is zara-zara or butsu-butsu shita hada, as in kanojo wa bijin da kedo hada ga zara-zara da (she may be a beauty, but she has rough skin). You may also simply say hada ga kitanai (dirty) or hada ga arete iru (chapped). Chapped skin is also known as hada-are or arehada.
Although it is not as highly prized in Japan as it used to be, a traditional beauty always has white, translucent skin. Thus, the proverb iro no shiroi wa shichi nan kakusu means, literally, that white skin can hide many faults, or a fair complexion compensates for other poor features. Correspondingly, asaguroi hada (guroi is black) is something most darker Japanese wish they didn't have. This prejudice comes from the old days when only farmers and other menial workers spent long hours in the sun. The mark of the leisure class, who could spend its days indoors in intellectual, artistic, and amorous pursuits, was very pale skin.
Here we move on to ashi (feet or legs). Long, slim, shapely legs are much admired in Japan, despite, or, possibly on account of, their rarity. Ashi ga mijikai (he has short legs) or mijikai ashi (short legs) are ordinary expressions. But tansoku, an alternative reading for mijikai ashi, is much more a term of ridicule for someone with stumpy legs.
Dōnaga-tansoku literally means long-waisted, short-legged, and is a typical insult for fat, middle-aged men in Japan. A more amusing synonym is dakkusufunto (dachshund).
Daikon-ashi (radish legs) can be aptly translated as piano legs, and is commonly applied to women with thick, definitionless legs. Futoi ashi is a common way of describing fat legs. Ganimata means bowlegged. Ganimata comes from kani mata, kani being crab, and mata being crotch or thigh.
It's interesting to note that the Japanese language originally did not have voiced sounds at the beginning of its words. Later people began to add voiced sounds to word beginnings in order to emphasize derogatory or indelicate meanings. This explains a change such as kani to gani. Ganimata sounds really awful to the Japanese ear; therefore, it's appropriate only when someone wants to be really disparaging.
Ganimata, or bowleggedness, is said to be the result of mothers putting excessively thick diapers on their babies. Uchimata, on the other hand, means pigeon-toed or knock-kneed. One sees quite a few pigeon-toed women in Japan, perhaps because of the country's long custom of wearing kimono, in which one must walk with short, mincing steps.
Another expression, wani-ashi, can be used to describe a person who is either bowlegged (soto-wani) or knock-kneed (uchi-wani). Soto means outward, and uchi is inward. Wani is alligator or crocodile.
The phrase kōdaka banbiro is used to describe the typically wide, high-instepped foot of the Japanese. Kōdaka means high instep or high back, and banbiro is wide feet. Such feet are thought to have developed from wearing traditional geta (wooden clogs), which do not constrict the feet in any fashion. But this expression is going out of use as geta are rarely seen nowadays.
In speaking of one's body shape as a whole, there are any number of amusing Japanese terms. Noppo (tall, gangly fellow), seitaka noppo (stilts or lampost), and kirin (giraffe) are all humorous ways of referring to a very tall person. Udo no taiboku is a near synonym. Udo is a Japanese plant similar to asparagus, and taiboku is a big tree. The stalk part of udo is edible when it's young, but after it grows to six feet or so in height, it becomes inedible. This phrase, then, means something like a big boob, someone who's big but useless.
Chibi or the more slangy chibikō are used to describe a very small person. When applied to children, these terms mean tot or kid, and the term chibikko is now commonly used when referring to children in a collective sense. Chibita is only used for male children.
The nouns chinchikurin and chinchikurin yaro describe a person who is small both physically and mentally (a pipsqueak or squirt). A more slangy adjective for these two nouns is chinke-na. Chinke-na onna means a short, unattractive, or awkward girl or woman.
Kobito, which is not to be confused with koibito (lover), is a dwarf, as in Shichinin no Kobito (The Seven Dwarfs).
Totchanbōya comes from ototchan (slang for father or grown male) and bōya (boy), and means a short, physically mature—but mentally immature—man.
Even more than people who are short or tall, those who are excessively thin or fat are likely objects of ridicule. Here are some words used to describe such people.
Yase or yaseppochi, which come from yaseta hito (thin person), is slang for someone who is very skinny. O-yase-san is a more ladylike expression. Gari or garitcho mean skin and bones, with gari being an onomatopoetic device for the sound of biting or scratching. Gari-gari ni yaseta describes an extremely skinny person. Honekawa sujiemon, which sounds like a person's name, also means skin and bones. Its components are hone (bone), kawa (skin), and suji (tendon). The-emon is added to make it sound like an old-fashioned male name. Finally, the envy of many of us are yase no o-gurai (slim people who eat all they want).
Gaikotsu refers to a skeleton.