SumiIn Japanese, a pumpkin is a southern melon (南瓜)
The Japanese word for pumpkin and squash is kabocha, and its kanji are 南瓜: 南, south, and 瓜, melon. In kanji, a pumpkin is a “southern melon”. The spelling and the word have two separate stories, though. The kanji come from Chinese, and the word kabocha comes from Cambodia, by way of Portuguese sailors.
What the kanji say
南 (minami, nan) means south. Nobody knows for sure what it first showed. One theory is a bell-like musical instrument, borrowed to write the word for “south” because the two sounded alike.
瓜 (uri) began as a drawing of a melon hanging from its vine. It covers the whole gourd family: melons, gourds, even cucumbers.
Where the spelling comes from
南瓜 is borrowed from Chinese, where it’s read nánguā. Japanese kept the Chinese spelling and read it with its own word, kabocha. That makes it a jukujikun (熟字訓): kanji chosen for their meaning, not their sound.
The plant itself was a newcomer to Asia. Pumpkins and squash are native to the Americas, so they only reached Asia after Europeans began carrying plants from the Americas around the world.
Where the word kabocha comes from
Pumpkins reached Japan in the mid-1500s on Portuguese ships. The story usually told is that Portuguese sailors brought them to Kyushu from Cambodia. The leading theory even names the place: Bungo, today’s Oita Prefecture, where the newcomers presented seeds to the local lord.
The name came with them. Camboja is Portuguese for Cambodia, and the “Camboja melon” became kabocha. Another theory links it instead to cabaça, the Portuguese word for a gourd.
So the video’s two facts come from two different places. The “south” in 南瓜 belongs to the Chinese name, which Japan borrowed. The ships that brought kabocha to Japan were Portuguese, and they did arrive from the south, by way of Southeast Asia.
Japanese has other names for it too: 唐茄子 (tounasu), “Chinese eggplant”, and 南京 (nankin), the same word as the city of Nanjing.
How to use it
かぼちゃの煮物が好きです。
Kabocha no nimono ga suki desu.
I like simmered kabocha.
このかぼちゃ、甘い！
Kono kabocha, amai!
This kabocha is so sweet!
ハロウィンのかぼちゃを買いました。
Harowin no kabocha o kaimashita.
I bought a pumpkin for Halloween.
冬至にはかぼちゃを食べます。
Touji ni wa kabocha o tabemasu.
We eat kabocha on the winter solstice.
- Usually written in kana. かぼちゃ or カボチャ is normal; 南瓜 is correct, but you’ll see it far less.
- One word, many squashes. In Japan, kabocha can mean the green-skinned Japanese pumpkin, the orange Halloween kind, or other squashes too. In English, kabocha usually means the Japanese variety, also called Japanese pumpkin.
- The winter solstice. Many Japanese families eat kabocha on 冬至 (touji), around 21 or 22 December. It sounds like an ancient custom, but it doesn’t appear in Edo-period records, and it’s thought to date from the Meiji era (1868–1912) onward.
- 瓜二つ (urifutatsu), “melon, two”, describes two people who look exactly alike: as alike as the two halves of a melon cut down the middle.
Words with the same kanji
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 西瓜 | suika | watermelon (“west melon”) |
| 胡瓜 | kyuuri | cucumber |
| 冬瓜 | tougan | winter melon, wax gourd |
| 瓜二つ | urifutatsu | exactly alike |
| 南口 | minamiguchi | south entrance, south exit |
| 東南アジア | Tounan Ajia | Southeast Asia |
Remember it
Picture a melon (瓜) on its vine, ripening in the hot southern (南) sun until it turns fat and orange. Carve a face in it, and it’s ready for Halloween.
The kanji in this lesson
Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.
南south
- On
- ナン nan · ナ na
- Kun
- みなみ minami
- Strokes
- 9
- Level
- JLPT N5
Common word 南北 なんぼく nanboku, north and south; north to south
瓜melon
- On
- カ ka · ケ ke
- Kun
- うり uri
- Strokes
- 6
Common word 胡瓜 きゅうり kyuuri, cucumber