順風満帆 junpū manpan Smooth Sailing

The wish for the voyage: a fair wind behind you and every sail full, everything going as well as it can go. It began as a sailor's plain log entry. It became the word for a life, a recovery or a business in a good stretch. It is a state you are in rather than a thing you do. Two readings compete, manpan and manpo, and manpan is the dictionaries' ruling. Its sister 一路順風 is the wish at the gangway, for the journey's start. This one is for the sailing itself.

The four-character idiom 順風満帆 is composed of the word 順風 (read junpū) meaning "favorable wind" and the kanji 満 (read man) meaning "full" and 帆 (read pan) meaning "sail".

順風満帆 is first found in a ship's log of 1873, literal, and was figurative in kanbun before 1880.

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