Frogs: In Japanese, ‘frog’ means ‘return’.

The Japanese have used their long lifespan to symbolize longevity, luckiness, and wisdom.

Turtles: Turtles, especially sea turtles, can live up to 150 years or more.They are known to be playful and cheerful animals who bring good fortune. Raccoon Dogs: Known as Tanuki in Japanese, raccoon dogs are popular in Japanese modern and traditional art.Lions have also long been the symbol of power and strength. Lions: Some Japanese places of worship have statues of two lions – known as ‘lion dogs’- guarding the entrances to keep evil away. Cats: Cats represent joy, fortune, and wealth, and they are believed to bring luck.Carps also symbolize fidelity and marriage.

So, their perseverance symbolizes the Children’s Day Festival on 5 May of each year in Japan to inspire children to work hard to be successful.

Carps: Carps have the strength to swim upstream.

Butterflies also symbolize womanhood as they believe that girls find their wings to fly and emerge into a woman.

Butterflies: The Japanese believe that when people pass, they take the form of a butterfly to journey to the other side.

Fall and winter come when they return to the waters. As legend has it, when dragons go up from the seas to the skies or heavens, spring comes, and summer comes when they make their homes in the heavens. They were believed to control the change of seasons.

Dragons: Though mythical, dragons are among the most powerful symbols in Japan and were worshipped as the gods of water.

Below you will find the symbolism of some of the animals in Japan. In fact, the Japanese macaque, also known as the snow monkey, is Japan’s national animal.ĭifferent animals have different symbolizes in many countries, not just in Japan. These 12 Japanese animal symbols – rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and boar – still hold essential meanings to this day.Īs evidenced by the many Japanese legends and idioms, monkeys are an important part of Japanese heritage and culture. In the Japanese Zodiac, there are 12 animals, which were all imported from ancient China.

Japanese Symbols And Meanings For Animals In this blog, we will teach you how to say animal names in Japanese.įirst of all, it is important to know that while some Japanese animal names are written in hiragana, most of them are written in katakana.Īnimals have significant symbolism for the Japanese so before we jump right into animal names in Japanese, let’s look at what various animals symbolize in Japan.

Our previous blogs covered how to say different fruits, days, months, and dates, goodbyes, and many others in Japanese. Welcome back to AKAL Japanese Academy’s blog on Japanese words and vocabulary.

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