三日坊主
みっかぼうず
mikka bouzu
= quitter; someone who gives up after just three days; a person who can’t stick with anything
三日坊主 (mikka bouzu) means someone who gives up after just three days — a quitter, a person who starts things enthusiastically but abandons them almost immediately. The word comes from a vivid image: a young man who joins a Buddhist temple, finds the austere monastic life unbearable, and flees within three days. The ‘three-day monk’ became the archetype for a very relatable human failure: the inability to follow through.
Mikka bouzu (三日坊主) describes a person who abandons their goals or commitments after only a short time — usually with the implication that they started with enthusiasm but couldn’t sustain it. Usage: 三日坊主になる (mikka bouzu ni naru — to become a three-day monk = to give up quickly), 三日坊主で終わる (mikka bouzu de owaru — to end as a three-day monk = to fail to continue), 「また三日坊主だったな」(mata mikka bouzu datta na — you were a three-day monk again, huh). Often used self-deprecatingly.
三日坊主 is very commonly used in self-deprecating contexts. Japanese New Year resolutions (新年の抱負, shinnen no houfu) are frequently cited as examples of things people go 三日坊主 on. Typical 三日坊主 scenarios: joining a gym in January then stopping by February, starting a diet then eating ramen within three days, deciding to study Japanese then abandoning it before finishing katakana. The expression is gentle and humorous rather than harshly critical — it names a universal human tendency.
三日坊主 combines 三日 (mikka — three days) + 坊主 (bouzu — Buddhist monk/novice; also a shaved head, a young boy, or an informal term for monks). 三日 uses 三 (san/mi — three) + 日 (nichi/ka — day). 坊主 originally meant a head monk of a temple precinct (坊 — monks’ quarters + 主 — head, master) but came to mean any monk, then a shaved head, then informally a young boy.
Everyday use
ダイエット始めると毎回三日坊主になってしまう。今回こそは続けたいのに。
Daietto hajimeru to maikai mikka bouzu ni natte shimau. Konkai koso wa tsuzuketai noni.
Every time I start a diet I end up quitting after three days. This time I really want to keep it up.
Casual / Social Media
毎日投稿すると宣言したくせに2日目でもう無理になってる完全に三日坊主の人
Mainichi toukou suru to sengen shita kuse ni futsukame de mou muri ni natteru kanzen ni mikka bouzu no hito
That person who declared they’d post every day but by day 2 it’s already impossible — a classic three-day monk
Formal / Cultural context
「三日坊主」の語源は仏教寺院への入山（出家）を試みた若者が厳しい修行に耐えられず三日以内に下山するという歴史的・社会的現象に由来する。近代以前の仏教寺院は修行の場であると同時に識字・医療・民衆教育の拠点でもあったため、経済的に困窮した家庭の子弟が修行を意図せず寺院に預けられるケースも多く、そのような「やむを得ず入山した者」の短期離脱が「三日坊主」類型を社会的認知として確立したとも考えられる。
‘Mikka bouzu’ no gogen wa Bukkyou-dera e no nyuuzan (shukke) wo kokoromi ta wakamono ga kibishi shugyou ni taerarazu mikkka inai ni gezan suru to iu rekishiteki shakaiteki genshou ni yurai suru. Kindai izen no Bukkyou-dera wa shugyou no ba de aru to doji ni shikiji iryou minshu kyouiku no kyoten demo atta tame, keizaitekikoukyuu shita katei no shitei ga shugyou wo ito sezu tera ni azukerareru keesu mo ooku, sono you na ‘yamu wo enai nyuuzan shita mono’ no tanki ridan ga ‘mikka bouzu’ ruikei wo shakaiteki ninchi toshite kakuritsu shita to mo kangaerareru.
The origin of ‘mikka bouzu’ derives from the historical and social phenomenon of young people who attempted to enter a Buddhist temple (become a monk) but couldn’t endure the rigorous training and left within three days. In pre-modern times, Buddhist temples served not only as training grounds but also as centers of literacy, medicine, and popular education, so children from economically struggling families were often placed in temples without genuine intent to train, and the short-term departure of such ‘reluctant entrants’ is thought to have established the ‘mikka bouzu’ type as social recognition.
三日坊主 reflects a realistic and compassionate understanding of human psychology embedded in Japanese popular wisdom. Japanese culture has a rich vocabulary for the gap between aspiration and follow-through: 気合 (kiai — spirit, fighting spirit) can be strong at the start, but 継続は力なり (keizoku wa chikara nari — continuity is strength) is the more valued virtue. The 三日坊主 concept acknowledges that starting is easy, continuing is hard — and names the failure without excessive condemnation.
The cultural context of monastic life that created 三日坊主 reflects Japan’s historical role of Buddhist temples in social life. Before public education, temples educated children; before modern medicine, temples provided medical care; before the modern state, temples registered births and deaths (寺請制度, tera-uke seido — temple certification system, used during the Edo period). Entering a temple as a novice (稚児, chigo, or 小僧, kozou) was a common life path for boys from poor families — and those who found the life unbearable and left created the archetype the expression preserves.
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