Chu Chu Tako Kaina
Today I would like to talk about the Japanese term “chu chu tako kaina.”
ちゅうちゅうたこかいな
This term is a kind of counting rhymes, which is used when counting the number of something in two units (it’s something like “two, four, six, eight…”).
今日は「ちゅうちゅうたこかいな」という言葉を紹介します。
There are several theories about this term, but the most widely accepted one is something like the following.
この言葉は、2個単位でものの数を数える際に利用される、数え歌の一種です。
The word “chu” comes from the sugoroku (Japanese backgammon) term “juji,” which means double two, that is four.
語源には幾つかの説がありますが、最も有力な説は以下のようなものです。
When you say “chu chu,” it means eight, and this number represents the number of octopus’ legs.
「ちゅう」という言葉は、平安時代に流行っていた双六で用いられた「重二」に由来します。
Therefore, we came to say “tako kaina,” which means “is it an octopus?,” after “chu chu.”
「重二」は2が重なること、つまり2のゾロ目を意味し、数字を足すと4になります。
