Glossary · etiquette
頂きます
itadakimasu
English
Said before eating. Translated everywhere as "let's eat" or "bon appétit", which both miss the point.
The verb 頂く (itadaku) is a humble form of "to receive". So you're literally saying "I receive (this)" — but with the older meaning of holding something above your head as a gesture of respect. The phrase quietly acknowledges every link in the chain that put the food in front of you: the rice farmer, the fisherman who pulled the fish, the cook who prepared it, and at the deepest read, the life of the plant or animal itself.
This is why a six-year-old in a Japanese school cafeteria says it before lunch with the same word a sushi chef hears from a guest at a 3-Michelin counter. It's not religious. It's not performative. It's the country's quiet acknowledgment that the food on your plate didn't appear by magic.
日本語
食事を始める前に言う言葉。海外では "let's eat" や "bon appétit" と訳されがちだが、ニュアンスがほぼ伝わってない。
「頂く」は「受ける」の謙譲語で、語源的には「頭の上に押しいただく」という、対象を尊敬の所作で受け取る意。食材を口にする前に、米を作った農家、魚を獲った漁師、調理した人、そして最終的にはその命そのもの、までの全ての「いただいてきた連鎖」に目を向ける言葉。
だから日本の小学校の給食でも、3 ツ星カウンターでも、同じ言葉が同じ重さで使われる。宗教でもパフォーマンスでもなく、「目の前の食事は魔法で現れたものではない」という、国全体の静かな確認。
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