obasan

plural obasans

1. A Japanese middle-aged woman.

   The boys resist the Japanese names by which the obasans of the camp address them as willfully as they renounce any identification with the fragmented body of the aged grandfather.

   2001, David L. Eng, Racial Castration: Managing Masculinity in Asian America, Durham, N.C.; London: Duke University Press, →ISBN, page 120

   5 more examples

   Some day Japanese women may be seen parading the streets bearing banners on which are written “Votes for Women,”—at least what appears to be a movement in this direction was inaugurated last week, says the Far East, when a public meeting for women was held at the Kanda Y. M. C. A. under the auspices of a woman’s periodical, the Blue-Stocking.[…]Mere male creatures were allowed to be present, and curious University students who wanted to see what all the fuss was about were obliged to ask the obasans in their neighbourhood if they could seek their protection.

   1913 March 6, The Japan Chronicle, old series, number 819; new series, number 583, Kobe, page 423

   Even if osteoporosis is not so common in elderly Japanese women as in Caucasians when measured in terms of bone density and fractures, I am still convinced that the many obasans one sees in Japan bent nearly double did not get that way merely from planting rice.

   1994, Monumenta Nipponica, page 383

   “Yeah,” September replied, “old woman. Push and shove. Often Tokyo obasans cut in line for everything and when they get caught they act innocent. They have power and they know it, like old-lady Morimoto, the drycleaner in our building. Geez, whoever designs obasan clothing should be arrested. Those tan shoes you’re wearing are revolting. I dressed up in those clothes for a Halloween party a few years back. But I didn’t look half as real as you.”

   2004, Janice Valerie Young, Sweet Daruma: A Japan Satire, New York; Lincoln; Shanghai: iUniverse, Inc., →ISBN, pages 61–62

   Elderly gents in berets walked past us, elegant with walking canes, escorting obasans, grandmothers in gleaming tabi socks and geta clogs, treading lightly upon the path with a fixedness approaching solemnity.

   2006, Trevor Carolan, The Pillow Book of Dr Jazz: Travels Along Asia’s Dharma Trail, Ekstasis Editions, →ISBN, page 227

   You were nearly hypnotized by the enchanting aroma of the smoke, but managed to keep a steady pace, not wanting to be pegged as a tourist by two obasans, who, cheeks red from the cold, were chatting while cradling grandchildren in their arms.

   2007, Chu T’ien-hsin, translated by Howard Goldblatt, The Old Capital: A Novel of Taipei, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, pages 164–165

2. A Japanese aunt.

   "This woman really my aunt, my obasan, but I call her my grandmother, obaasan.[…]"

   1985, Kenneth Fenter, Mo Ichido, Once More: An American Family in Japan, the Second Year, Cross Cultural Press, →ISBN, page 25

   5 more examples

   In the novel [Obasan] Naomi stands between two obasans, the one of the title, her great-aunt, the other aunt Emily, her mother’s sister.

   1992, Wilhelm G. Busse, editor, Anglistentag 1991 Dusseldorf: Proceedings, Max Niemeyer Verlag, page 380

   When Naomi’s uncle dies, Naomi travels home to her obasan, where she is newly confronted with questions about her mother’s inexplicable and permanent disappearance before the war when Naomi was still a small child.

   2003, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, volume 24, page 139

   She forced her thoughts into it, thought hard about the sakura viewing festivals and her obasan’s beloved samisen as she sang traditional songs under the cherry blossom trees.

   2014, Julia Rios, Alisa Krasnostein, editors, Year’s Best: Young Adult Speculative Fiction 2013, Twelfth Planet Press, →ISBN

   I see my best friends, Walter Okura and Alvin Wakayama, with their obasans and moms visiting the very spot where Buddha attained Enlightenment.

   2020, R.K. Lindsey, Jr., Waimea I Ka La’i, iUniverse, →ISBN

   After more than three months of staying with her obasan and ojisan, she could finally go home.

   2021, Wesley Leon Aroozoo, chapter 20, in The Punkhawala and the Prostitute, Epigram Books, →ISBN