神の加護 kami no kago God Bless You

God bless you: the wish a Japanese speaker sends someone off with, and the four characters say a little more than the English does, God's protection, the keeping that carries a person through. Which God the characters do not say, so the same four serve a church, a temple and a shrine, and the reader brings their own.

The Japanese phrase "kami no kago" meaning "God Bless You" is composed of the words 神 (read kami) meaning "God; god" and 加護 (read kago) meaning "divine protection". Literally it is "God's protection". It is a noun, so the same four characters serve "God bless you" and "God's protection" alike; the wish built on it, 神の御加護がありますように, means "may God's protection be upon you."

A Buddhist word for the protection a buddha or a god adds to a person, in Japanese by 999; the medieval war tales say a man is a man by the 加護 of the gods, Japanese print gave it to the Christian God by 1880, and from the 1920s translators made 神の御加護がありますように the Japanese for God bless you.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 神の加護.

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