Yoyu – Breaking Down The Meaning

If you’re like me, then understanding the meaning of the two individual characters that make up yoyu will compel you to use the word even more.

In short, yoyu is a Japanese concept often used to express whether or not we have enough of something. Whether it’s time, money, energy, or even emotional energy. If you haven’t already, read the original post here.

Let’s break it down.

What is Yo?

The syllable yo comes from the Japanese kanji or character which when used alone is pronounced amaru. It means extra, excess, overflow, or leftover. You can use it in conversation to talk about leftover rice from dinner or excess money in your department budget.

Amaru or yo means excess, both good and bad

Amaru or yo as it is pronounced in compound words can have both a positive and negative nuance depending on the situation and degree of excess. Much like how it’s good if someone is enthusiastic but being overenthusiastic is bad. Or, an abundance of something is generally good, whereas an overabundance might present a burden.

For example, amaru is part of a common idiom – te ni amaru. The word-for-word translation would be something like an overflow in your hands.

Te (hand/s) ni (in/at) amaru (excess, overflow).

You might think the idiom would be used to describe an excess of something wonderful.

However, the phrase is typically used to talk about when something is in excess of what you can handle. Meaning it’s beyond your capacity.

The reason it is beyond your capacity is not implied, but generally, people can infer the reason from the conversation. It might be because you lack experience, time, patience, or the energy to deal with it.

In contrast, amaru is used with another common phrase – mi ni amaru.

Mi (body) ni (in/at) amaru (excess, overflow).

The meaning is similar and implies that whatever you’re talking about is beyond not just your hands (as in the first example) but beyond you or your body’s capacity to handle it.

Interestingly, if you add one more word to this phrase – koei (honor) the meaning becomes very positive and expresses humble gratitude or humility. The honor is beyond your body’s capacity, or the equivalent in English would be “this is a great honor” or “undeserved honor.”

What is Yu?

The syllable yu comes from the Japanese kanji or character, which, when used alone, is pronounced yutaka. In its simplest form, yutaka means abundant, and it’s used to describe things like an abundant country.

Yutaka (abundant) na kuni (country).

The character is also used in many compound words, in which it’s typically pronounced yu. Here are three that start or finish with this same character:

Yufuku – wealthy, affluent
Fuyu – wealthy
Kanyu – liberal, tolerant, broad-minded

Yutaka is a rich character used to describe people, too, especially someone who is broad-minded, open-minded, and big-hearted and NOT tight, narrow-minded, or nitpicky.

Yutaka or Yu has a positive nuance and is therefore used in personal names

Whether pronounced yu when used in compound words such as yoyu or on its own, yutaka has a positive nuance and is widely used. If you hear “yutaka” in conversation, it’s likely you’re talking about a person because Yutaka is a common boy’s name.

As a name, the character lends the additional nuance of being easygoing and open-hearted. In fact, there are many famous actors, both men, and women, who adopt this Japanese character as part of their stage name because it has such a positive meaning.

You’ll also see this character combined with other characters to form many common names for boys and girls in which it is pronounced yu, or hiro. For example, Yuko and Hiroko for girls, and Yusuke or Hiroshi for boys.

And, I would be in trouble with my Chinese friends if I did not mention that this character came originally from China and that Liu Yu was the given name of Emperor Wu (363-422 CE), who was responsible for founding the Liu Song Dynasty.

For our purposes, we can think of the syllable yu in yoyu as “abundance”.

Now that we have an idea of what yo and yu mean, let’s get back to the concept of yoyu itself. How can we use it? Why should we? How can this word be applied to our daily living and help us live a life of abundance and balance?

Keep learning more about yoyu and unlock a powerful new way to live your life.

Find out what yoyu is in this post.