If you've ever been impressed by Japanese convenience stores, you may have never heard of the term. yorozuya. This term is used to refer to stores that sell everything, or the willingness to offer, sell, or do anything for money.
The word yorozuya [万屋] refers to stores that sell everything, or people who do all kinds of services. Yorozuya sometimes refers to someone who knows everything. It can refer to a person who does everything broadly and superficially, that is, a generalist.
Maybe you've heard of the yorozuya through the anime Gintama, in which he refers to his company that performs any service for money. What is the connection between stores that sell everything and the anime Gintama?
Yorozuya - Japanese Warehouse
There are many stores in Japan called "Yorozuya” mainly in remote regions and in the countryside. In areas with a small population, it is difficult to establish specialty stores because there is no demand, so we found the stores yorozuya.
This is usually a tiny supermarket or liquor and candy stores that usually sell other products. In the countryside, there can literally be “shops for everything”, from fresh food to stationery, but there are some that sell everything.
Yorozuya can be considered an ancient version of a konbini. In fact, these convenience store franchises that also sell everything have replaced the yorozuya with each passing year, leaving only those in remote places.
In the past, it was also called Banji or Banya. In Okinawa, it's called Machiya. Its English equivalent is General Store, which indicates its broad and superficial meaning. The closest we find in English is the term warehouse, but I can't say if it's an appropriate translation.
The meaning of the Word Yorozuya
"Yorozuya”Is written with the character of 10,000 [万]. A generic term for shops in front of the station and on the corners where various groceries and various products of the day are sold. You could say that it was the predecessor of today’s convenience stores.
In real life the word is written only with the ideograms [万屋] where 10,000 can be translated as "all". In the anime Gintama, the ideogram of thing [事] to literally mean "Store of 10,000 Businesses" [万事屋].
The ideogram added in the anime [事] does not change the pronunciation or reading of the word, but adds the meaning of business, matter, thing or service. Even in the anime Gintama, Kagura refers to the predecessor name banjiya.
In the anime Gintama, the yorozuya also became extinct after the wars of joui, leaving only the Gintama. The same is true in real life, where convenience stores have replaced these generic stores, leaving few.
Jack-of-all-trades - A jack of all trades
Yorozura also refers to a popular English term Jack-of-all-traders which can be translated as jack-of-all-trades. The full expression is jack of all trades, master of none, whose meaning is “does everything a little, but nothing right”.
This is a figure of speech used to refer to a person who has been involved in many skills, rather than gaining experience by focusing on one. Seems a lot like me, lol!
In short, the word yorozuya it can refer to stores that sell everything needed for everyday life, warehouse or variety store, as well as a person who knows a little bit about everything. Did you know these little Japanese stores?
