Two kanji, 生 (life) and 業 (work), written together as one word.
生業 (nariwai) is a Japanese word meaning livelihood or occupation. It is composed of two kanji: 生 (sei or nama), meaning life, living, or to be born, and 業 (gyō), meaning work, deed, or occupation.1 Written together, the two characters do not describe work and life as separate domains. They present them as a single, undivided concept.
The reading nariwai is a jukujikun, a Japanese reading assigned to a kanji compound based on meaning rather than on the individual sound values of the characters.2 The nari portion likely derives from the verb 成る (naru), meaning to be achieved or to bear fruit. The word carries a literary and dignified tone, often implying traditional, artisanal, or agricultural work rather than modern salaried employment.3
Modern Japanese has other words for employment, including 仕事 (shigoto), the common everyday term for work or job, and 職業 (shokugyō), a more formal term for profession or occupation. Nariwai sits apart from these. Its usage suggests a livelihood that is integrated with identity, a way of sustaining life that is itself an expression of living.4
The kanji 業 also appears in karoshi (過労死), the word for death by overwork that had to be invented because the Japanese language had no term for it. In nariwai, the same character for work is fused with life. In karoshi, it is fused with death.