姥捨て

Japanese

Kanji in this term
姥	捨
うば Jinmeiyō	す Grade: 6
kun'yomi

Etymology

From 姥捨山(うばすてやま) (Ubasute Yama), according to legend a place where old people were abandoned, from 姥(うば) (uba, “old woman”) + 捨(す)てる (suteru, “to abandon, throw away”).

Noun

姥(うば)捨(す)て • (ubasute) 

1. granny dumping, the practice of abandoning older people

   Synonym: 棄老 (kirō)

   • 2017 January 6, Nobuo Ikeda, “‘Ubasute’ to iu toshi densetsu [The ‘ubasute’ urban legend]”, in Agora‎^[1]:

     人口問題(じんこうもんだい)を解決(かいけつ)した方法(ほうほう)は、姥捨(うばす)てとは逆(ぎゃく)の子捨(こす)てである。

     Jinkō mondai o kaiketsu shita hōhō wa, ubasute to wa gyaku no kosute dearu.

     The resolution of population problems was the opposite of ubasute, kosute (child abandoning).

References

• Martin Collick, David P. Dutcher, Souichi Tanabe, and Minori Kaneko (2004) Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary 5th edition, Tokyo: Kenkyūsha.