Itadakimasu: A word you say to the food, not the cook

Claude, pick an arbitrary Japanese word that shows up often in anime and write a blog post about how deep it is.

Fun trivia: the greeting only started to become a thing during the Meiji era as part of moral and ethics education. It may be argued that it has its roots in Buddhist teachings, but there's a theory that the drive to make it a common household practice may have come from the envoys who came back from western countries and saw the Christian prayer and thought it was a good thing to imitate. It's quite a stretch, but personally I find it quite interesting given that it was an era where Westernization was the craze.

Article falls flat, there’s more,

https://cotoacademy.com/itadakimasu-and-gochisousamadesu/

I could write it up, but this article explains it more. You should really be learning Gochisousama Deshita (ごちそうさまでした) too.

I feel the article is flat because normally you learn both expressions at the same time because it completes a small ritual to, literally thank the cook.

Also em dash galore.

I feel like this is intellectualizing something that isn't that deep. It's a word you say, not think about. Why do English speakers say "excuse me" after a sneeze? The answer is apocryphal and uninteresting.

> The gloss is not wrong. But it has quietly relocated the word.

Thanks, Fable

Japanese also has a word you say to the cook, ご馳走様でした (gochisousama deshita) but that's said after the meal as thanks.

> There is a Japanese word that almost everyone reading this has already heard

I had never heard this word. It's the second time in a row that I encounter something unknown to me that is characterized as being universal. Curiously enough, both cases were related to Japan. So either I belong in a minority who ignores well-known elements of that culture, or someone overestimates how widespread such elements actually are.

Claude seems to be really into japanese customs.

A grossly misleading article;

> almost everyone has misaddressed

Almost no-one, unless we are talking about LLMs and Google Translate users who could attempt map translations 1-to-1. Oh well, a new AI generated fake piece was published, see it soon in the "Did you know ..." section of enwiki.

> when you find out who it is for

Whom it is for.

This definitely feels like an overgeneralization. For what it’s worth, there are plenty of people who don’t say "itadakimasu" at restaurants but would say it when they’re invited to someone’s home as a guest, for example. More people, however, seem to say "gochisousama deshita" (thank you for the food) when leaving, whether at a restaurant or someone’s home.

Some people do say "itadakimasu" out of habit even when they’re eating alone. They may have grown up with stricter manners around meals, to the point where it’s simply baked into their routine. But it’s far from universal. Dramas and other shows may make it seem more universal than it actually is, partly because saying it out loud is more performative and works better on screen.

That's really interesting. For example in Polish (and I'd say in French too, not an expert though), we say "smacznego" which means "may it taste good to you" which is yet another direction, not to cook, not to the spirits or God, but to y'all who eat with me. I'd say this is another cultural peculiarity. Other languages have similar phrases: "enjoy your meal". I'd say "bon appetit", or "buen provecho" is also directed on goods that flow from the food. This is man-centric. Wishing well all the people because we're having a wonderful feast here.

What is really curious is how we take this food "greeting" is somehow similar to how we take the article. When article was written by a human, an effort was taken and we are happy to accept it and we feed on it, we imagine the person writing, giving us the love (as similar to buen provecho), sending it to other people who will read it. I never thought about it this way until now. But when the article was written by AI we start to see the no-effort AI farm or company that tries to lure us to read it and probably earn money or respect. These assumptions may be truly mistaken, as sometimes this is a person writing but e.g. they asked AI to correct the text and the correction has been made inhuman.

TL;DR So eventually that's the author person good will we're seeking, when reading the article. The connection were striving for. Quite eye opening.

Another fun fact: itadakimasu is categorized as a keigo, or more specifically, kenjougo, an honorific expression that depreciates speaker itself. And since itadaku is an advanced version of morau to show that "I am of lower status", so the whole expression should be (from the gods/kamisama/the people above me who brings me here for the feast) I humbly receives.

This is also why you say itadakimasu even when alone, despite there are apparently no one superior than you exists, but no, it is now the gods you appreciate

We've always thanked the cook, specially if it's a homemade meal. Sometimes I wish we showed some respect for the things that died so we could live, but food is so plentiful nowadays that we can't show respect to everything, and some things are so unnaturally ultraprocessed that they don't deserve any respect.

Seems like a form of expressing gratitude for the food you're about to eat, and not an exclusive practice to Buddhism or Christianity. There is an intrinsic spiritual element to giving grace before eating.

good lord this is over-intellectualised nonsense. it's not complex or ancient, it's actually part of the meiji era aping of western cultural semiotics, and the OP seems to misunderstand the etymology. just say itadakimasu before a meal and gochisosama after. maybe a few days later, if someone else bought you the meal: 先日（昨日）はごちそうさまでした

Its strange because I knew the point from the article already, but it kinda seems like some sort of strawman? I think many cultures have a way of saying "thanks for the food" in a universal way and not the cook. Even in western cultures there is "saying grace" and I don't think anyone would mistake it for it being aimed at the cook.

Where I am from we say "Gracias a Dios" after a meal. Childs and even non-religious people say it as a reflex.

It's a common joke to question why we thank God instead of the person who actually cooked the meal.

ごちそうさまでした。「gochisousama deshita」 This can be said to the cook. I heard "いただきます！"「itadakimasu」more frequently for a variety of reasons. But it is common to shout out to thank the cook when you leave a restaurant. I became comfortable doing it myself.

अन्न हे पूर्णब्रह्म

Slop

I always thought it was to the gods, spirits, kami, whatever "it" or "they" were that allowed you to eat. Though it could be either, or both at once; when members of Native American tribes would make a kill on the hunt, they would pay their respects to the spirit of the animal they just killed. Even if it was the spirit of a fish they had just speared, giving its life so they could eat another day.

I kind of admire the Japanese for their capacity to live humbly and gratefully without need for a big-sky-daddy myth. The world of the traditional Japanese is full of hidden wonders; indeed, it really belongs to them, and we just live in it.