Grandpa in Japanese is 祖父, said sofu. It pairs 祖, ancestor, nine strokes under the altar radical, with 父, father, four strokes and a radical in its own right. Sofu is how you mention your own grandfather to outsiders; to his face he is おじいちゃん (ojiichan). Written in hiragana sofu is そふ, and in katakana ソフ.
Grandpa in Japanese
Grandpa in Japanese is two words, and the listener decides which one comes out.
In September a nursery-school card comes home: a crayon man with glasses and a fishing rod, and underneath, in wobbly hiragana, おじいちゃん いつもありがとう, Grandpa, thank you for everything. It is for 敬老の日 (Keirou no Hi), Respect for the Aged Day. Twenty years on, the same grandchild sits in a job interview and says 祖父は漁師でした (sofu wa ryoushi deshita), my grandfather was a fisherman. Same man. Different word.
The rule is the inside and outside split of Japanese politeness, explained in more detail on grandma in Japanese. About your own family, to an outsider, you use the plain, humble word: 祖父 (sofu), like 父 (chichi) for your own father. To your family, or about someone else’s, you use the warmer words: おじいちゃん, おじいさん, お父さん. It is a small piece of keigo, the Japanese system of respectful speech.
Sofu and Ojiichan Meaning
Sofu (祖父) means grandfather, the father of either of your parents. To say which side, add 父方の祖父 (chichikata no sofu), paternal grandfather, or 母方の祖父 (hahakata no sofu), maternal grandfather. It sounds formal, and older texts read it sobu, as in the medieval Tale of the Heike.
Ojiichan (おじいちゃん) is the family word: お, an honorific, plus じい (jii), the old word for grandfather, plus the affectionate ちゃん (chan). Ojiisan (おじいさん) is a little politer and the usual word for someone else’s grandfather. Ojiisama (おじいさま) is the most respectful. Small children say じいじ (jiiji). Like the grandmother words, these also mean any old man, so think twice before using them on a stranger.
Two near misses wait for learners. おじさん (ojisan), with a short i, is an uncle or any middle-aged man, so the held vowel in おじいさん matters. And じじい (jijii), the long vowel moved to the end, is an insult, roughly “old geezer,” and much ruder than it looks.
One more sense lives on in period drama, where a young lord calls his elderly guardian 爺 (jii). The Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, Japan’s largest historical dictionary, finds it in a puppet play from 1716.
The Kanji for Grandpa: 祖父
- Characters: 祖父, read そふ (sofu)
- 祖: on’yomi ソ (so); nine strokes; radical 礻 (altar), Kangxi radical 113; taught in fifth grade
- 父: on’yomi フ (fu); kun’yomi ちち (chichi); four strokes; 父 is itself a radical, Kangxi number 88, with no strokes added; taught in second grade
- General meaning: grandfather, the father of either parent
- Related character: 爺 (ya, jii, old man), thirteen strokes, 父 on top of 耶; it is not on the Jōyō list
The Jōyō table also lists a traditional form of 祖, written with the full altar 示 and counted as ten strokes, which is the figure the Unicode database gives. The modern Japanese form has nine. In the same table, お父さん’s tou and the oji of 伯父 and 叔父, uncle, appear as special readings. Ojiisan does not, which is why it is normally written in kana.
Japanese Symbol for Grandpa
祖 is the altar radical beside 且, a stand for offerings, and it means ancestor. Its story is told on grandma in Japanese. The half that is new here is 父.
In the oldest Chinese writing, 父 is a hand holding something up. The classical dictionary Shuowen Jiezi reads it as a head of household raising a staff to lead and teach; another reading sees the head of an axe, a mark of authority. Either way, 父 began as a picture of the person in charge.
Put 父 on top of 耶, which supplies the sound, and you get 爺, the old man. It is grandpa with father written into it, and it is the character behind じじ and じい.
The native word is older than any of these. In ancient Japanese ち (chi) meant father, and おおぢ (ooji), senior father, was the main word for grandfather for many centuries. A legal commentary from 738 already uses it. Only in the Edo period did ぢぢ (jiji) take over, and that jiji, worn down to jii, is the じい inside ojiichan.
The written word 祖父 has a famous early user. The Nihon Kokugo Daijiten’s first example comes from the collected writings of Sugawara no Michizane, the scholar later worshipped as the god of learning, from around 900. In a note to a poem he says his family has held the same scholarly posts for three generations, from his grandfather down to himself.
How to Write 祖父 in Japanese
Thirteen strokes: nine for 祖, four for 父.
祖 opens with the narrow altar radical in four strokes, then 且 in five, finishing with a long base wider than everything above it. The full walk-through is on the grandma page.
父 is quick. First the two short strokes at the top, the left one slanting down to the left, then the right one slanting down to the right, so they open like a pair of eyebrows. Then the long sweep from upper right down to the lower left. Last, the long stroke from upper left down to the lower right, crossing it. The crossing point sits a little below the middle.
Watch the look-alikes. 交 (kou, to mix, as in 交通 koutsuu, traffic) is 父 with a lid on top, a dot and a horizontal. 文 (bun, writing) is that lid over a bare cross. Leave the lid off and keep the two short strokes apart.
How to Say Grandpa in Japanese
Sofu is two short beats, “soh-foo.” The Japanese f is softer than the English one: blow gently between rounded lips without touching your teeth. Ojiichan is five beats, o-ji-i-cha-n, so hold the jii for two of them and give the final n its own small beat.
Real sentences:
- 祖父は毎朝散歩をしています。(Sofu wa maiasa sanpo o shite imasu.) My grandfather goes for a walk every morning.
- おじいちゃん、肩たたきしてあげる! (Ojiichan, katatataki shite ageru!) Grandpa, I’ll pat your shoulders for you!
- おじいさまによろしくお伝えください。(Ojiisama ni yoroshiku otsutae kudasai.) Please give my regards to your grandfather.
- 母方の祖父は大工でした。(Hahakata no sofu wa daiku deshita.) My maternal grandfather was a carpenter.
- じいじ、だっこ! (Jiiji, dakko!) Grandpa, pick me up!
The second line is a whole custom in miniature. 肩たたき, patting or kneading the shoulders, is a classic gift from a small child to a grandparent, sometimes handed over as a booklet of homemade coupons.
Words and Compounds With 祖父
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 祖父 | sofu | grandfather, one’s own, said to outsiders |
| 祖父母 | sofubo | grandparents |
| 父方の祖父 | chichikata no sofu | paternal grandfather |
| 曽祖父 | sousofu | great-grandfather |
| ひいおじいちゃん | hii-ojiichan | great-grandpa, the family word |
| 好々爺 | koukouya | a kindly, good-natured old man |
| 狸爺 | tanuki jijii | a sly old fox of a man |
| 花咲爺 | hanasaka jijii | the old man who made the trees bloom |
The last three carry 爺, and they show its range. 好々爺 is pure praise, the grandfather who beams at everyone. 狸爺 borrows the tanuki, the trickster raccoon dog, for an old man who is craftier than he lets on. And 花咲爺 is the hero of a folk tale that took shape between the late Muromachi and early Edo periods, an honest old man whose dog leads him to buried treasure and who makes withered trees burst into flower, while his greedy neighbour copies him and fails.
Grandpa in Japanese Culture
In 1887 a Ministry of Education reader for primary schools printed a line every Japanese child still knows in some form: ぢぢは、山へくさかりに、ばばは、川へせんたくに行きました. Grandpa went to the mountain to cut grass, and Grandma went to the river to do the washing. Today’s picture books say おじいさんは山へ柴刈りに, Grandpa went to the mountain to gather brushwood. 柴刈り (shibakari) sounds exactly like 芝刈り, mowing the lawn, an easy mix-up for a child picturing the scene.
Grandfathers also mark the big birthdays. 還暦 (kanreki) comes at sixty, when the sixty-year cycle of the old calendar returns to the sign of the year you were born. It is treated as a second birth, so the family gives red clothing, the colour of a newborn; a baby is 赤ちゃん (akachan), a little red one. Encyclopedias date the kanreki party to the early modern era, later than the older celebrations at seventy, seventy-seven and beyond. The eighty-eighth birthday, 米寿 (beiju), takes its name from the character for rice, as explained on rice in Japanese.
And there is a public holiday for them. 敬老の日, Respect for the Aged Day, falls on the third Monday of September; in 2027 that is September 20. The Cabinet Office states its purpose as honouring older people who have contributed to society for many years and celebrating their long lives. Towns hold events for their oldest residents, and families gather. At New Year the roles reverse, and the grandparents hand out the otoshidama envelopes.
As a Tattoo
Start with the plain fact: 祖父 is not a common tattoo. A Japanese reader will understand it, but it sounds like “grandfather” on a medical record.
If you want to honour a grandfather, Japanese gives you warmer choices. His name. A character for something he loved: 海 (umi, the sea) for a fisherman, 木 (ki) from tree in Japanese for a gardener. Or a quality he had, such as 誠 (makoto, sincerity). Those carry a person. 祖父 carries a category.
Check the single characters. 父 alone means father, not grandfather. 祖 alone means ancestor or founder. 爺 alone reads as old man, and it leans toward the rude じじい rather than the affectionate じいちゃん. None of them is a one-character grandpa.
On script: 祖父 is written the same way in Japanese and in simplified and traditional Chinese. In Mandarin, zǔfù is formal, and everyday speech uses yéye for a father’s father and wàigōng or lǎoye for a mother’s father, so a Chinese reader will see the formal term. 爺 itself is simplified to 爷 in mainland China, so check that a reference image shows the full 父 on top.
Confirm with a native speaker before you ink. You can preview the characters in vertical and horizontal layouts with the Japanese Tattoo Generator, and read the wider background in our guide to japanese tattoo meanings.
Related Kanji
For more characters about the people who raised you, browse the kanji library.
Sources and Further Reading
- 常用漢字表 (Cabinet Notice No. 2 of 2010), Agency for Cultural Affairs the readings ソ for 祖 and フ and ちち for 父, the special readings 父さん and 伯父 or 叔父, and the absence of 爺
- 父 in KANJIDIC2, WWWJDIC, Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group four strokes, radical 88 and second-grade status
- 祖父, Digital Daijisen and Nihon Kokugo Daijiten (Kotobank) the 1887 primary school reader line, the Kanke Bunsō example of about 900, the reading sobu, ooji and jiji, the 1716 retainer sense and jijii as an insult
- 還暦, Heibonsha World Encyclopedia and Nipponica (Kotobank) the sixty-year cycle, red clothing for rebirth, and the kanreki celebration as an early modern custom
- 「国民の祝日」について, Cabinet Office the purpose of Respect for the Aged Day, the third Monday of September, and September 20, 2027
FAQ
How do you say grandpa in Japanese?
To his face, or inside the family, say ojiichan (おじいちゃん). To mention your own grandfather to outsiders, say sofu (祖父). For someone else’s grandfather, use ojiisan (おじいさん), or ojiisama when you want to be especially polite. Small children often say じいじ (jiiji).
What is the difference between sofu and ojiichan?
The listener. 祖父 (sofu) is the humble word for your own grandfather when you speak to a teacher, an employer or a doctor. おじいちゃん (ojiichan) is what you call him and what the family says at home. The same rule gives 父 (chichi) and お父さん (otousan) for father.
What is the kanji for grandpa?
The kanji for grandpa is 祖父, thirteen strokes. 祖, nine strokes, means ancestor and sits under the altar radical. 父, four strokes, means father and is a radical of its own, number 88. The informal character 爺 (old man) puts 父 on top of 耶, but it is not a Jōyō kanji.
What is the difference between ojiisan and ojisan?
The long vowel. おじいさん (ojiisan) holds the ii for two beats and means grandfather or an elderly man. おじさん (ojisan), with a short i, means uncle or a middle-aged man. Mixing them up can make a forty-year-old feel very old.
When is Respect for the Aged Day in Japan?
敬老の日 (Keirou no Hi) falls on the third Monday of September, so the date moves each year. In 2027 it is Monday, September 20. It is a national holiday for honouring older people and celebrating long life, and many families use it to visit or call their grandparents.