kanji

The numbers 1, 2, 3, and 10, 20, 30 have more complex forms,
used, for example, on legal documents, for financial transactions, etc.,
which cannot be as easily modified as the standard forms:

　
# usual
kanji document
kanji reading kana
1 一 壱 ichi いち, いっ
2 二 弐 貳 貮 ni に
3 三 参 參 san
(mairu) さん
10 十 拾 jū
(hirou) じゅう
20 二十 廿 nijū
にじゅう
30 三十 三拾 卅 sanjū
さんじゅう

A section of the printing history page of the 1955 (Shōwa 30) printing of Takehara's 1941 "A Standard Japanese-English Dictionary (Abridged Edition)." showing 壱 (1), 弐 (2),参, (3) and 拾 (10).

A section of the copyright page of the 1906 printing of Brinkley's 1896 (Meiji 29) "An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary" showing 廿 (20) and 卅 (30).


Japanese Eras and Gregorian Years

Era Start Date End Date Conversion to
Gregorian year
明治
Meiji September 8, 1868 July 30, 1912 Meiji + 1867
大正
Taishō July 30, 1912 December 25, 1926 Taishō + 1911
昭和
Shōwa December 25, 1926 January 7, 1989 Shōwa + 1925
平成
Heisei January 7, 1989 Present Heisei + 1988

Nihongo