Do you know any Japanese palindromes?

Kaibun (回文・廻文), or palindromes, are words or phrases that read the same from the beginning to the end or from the end to the beginning. Japanese palindromes, kaibun, are based on kana, so these words are identical when their kana is reversed. For the purposes of kaibun, ga is equivalent to ka, and so on.

Here is a table of kaibun. In these examples, one possible English meaning only is given. Some of the words and phrases have several possible translations.

Single words
Rōmaji	Japanese	One English meaning
Kuku	九九	Times table
Sasa	笹	Bamboo grass
Shishi	獅子	Temple lion
Susu	煤	Soot
Chichi	父	Father
Tsutsu	筒	Tube
Nana	七	Seven
Haha	母	Mother
Mimi	耳	Ear
Momo	桃	Peach
Irui	衣類	Clothes
Kajika	カジカ	A kind of fish
Kisaki	妃	Empress
Kiteki	汽笛	Steam whistle
Koneko	子猫	Kitten
Samusa	寒さ	Coldness
Shikishi	色紙	Square board
Shirushi	印	Sign
Tomato	トマト	Tomato
Nazuna	ナザナ	A plant called shepherd's purse
Fuufu	夫婦	A married couple
Minami	南	South
Yaoya	やおや	Greengrocer
Yadoya	やどや	Inn
Kitsutsuki	キツツキ	Woodpecker
Shinbunshi	新聞紙	Newspaper
Taueuta	田植え歌	Rice-planting song
Phrases
Ika ni mo nigai	いかにもにがい	Very bitter
Kono ko neko no ko	このこねこのこ	This baby is a kitten
Ika to Kai	いかとかい	Squid and shellfish
Takeyabu yaketa	たけやぶやけた	The bamboo grove burnt
Tashika ni kashita	たしかにかした	I definitely lent it
Iro shiroi	いろしろい	White
Dansu ga sunda	だんすがすんだ	The dance is over
Natsu made matsu na	なつまでまつな	Don't wait until summer
Kui ni iku	くいにいく	Go to eat
Nakuna nakuna	なくななくな	Don't cry, don't cry
Nishiga higashi ni	にしがひがしに	The west is east
Tai ga ita	たいがいた	There was a bream
Mi ga kanekagami	みがかねかがみ	Moneylender
Meshi ni onishime	めしにおにしめ
Yasui isuya	やすいいすや	A cheap chair shop
Rusu ni nani suru	るすになにする	What will you do when I'm out?
Taifuu biu biu fuita	たいふうびうびうふいた	The typhoon blew
Yoru iru yo	よるいるよ	I'll be in this evening
Nagasaki ya no yaki sakana	ながさきやのやきさかな	Grilled fish from Nagasaki-ya
washi no shiwa	わしのしわ	My wrinkles
Hei no aru ano ie	へいのあるあのいえ^*	That house with the fence
karui kibin na koneko nanbiki iruka	かるいきびんなこねこなんびきいるか	How many light clever cats are there?

Japanese people traditionally write from top to bottom (see Can Japanese be written right to left?), so they say, for example, "Ue kara yonde mo tomato. Shita kara yonde mo tomato" (Read from the top, tomato. Read from the bottom, tomato).

Notes

* This uses the old form of kana where いえ was written いへ. See What is historical kana usage?

Acknowledgements

From posts by Charles Lippert and muchan.

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