obasan

A Japanese middle-aged woman.

Some day Japanese women may be seen parading the streets bearing banners on which are written “Votes for Women,”—at least what appears to be a movement in this direction was inaugurated last week, says the Far East, when a public meeting for women was held at the Kanda Y. M. C. A. under the auspices of a woman’s periodical, the Blue-Stocking.[…]Mere male creatures were allowed to be present, and curious University students who wanted to see what all the fuss was about were obliged to ask the obasans in their neighbourhood if they could seek their protection.

Even if osteoporosis is not so common in elderly Japanese women as in Caucasians when measured in terms of bone density and fractures, I am still convinced that the many obasans one sees in Japan bent nearly double did not get that way merely from planting rice.

A Japanese aunt.

"This woman really my aunt, my obasan, but I call her my grandmother, obaasan.[…]"

In the novel [Obasan] Naomi stands between two obasans, the one of the title, her great-aunt, the other aunt Emily, her mother’s sister.