1.
shop apprentice; shop boy (historical)
A boy who lived and worked in a merchant's house from about age ten, running errands and doing chores in exchange for food, lodging, and training, before rising to clerk (手代) and then head clerk (番頭). A system of the Edo period through the early twentieth century, especially in Osaka.
Common expressions
- 丁稚奉公: serving as a shop apprentice; today also used jokingly for low-paid training work
- 丁稚羊羹: a plain, inexpensive yokan, supposedly named because apprentices bought it as a gift on their trips home
Cultural note
The ranks of a merchant house ran 丁稚 → 手代 → 番頭. Konosuke Matsushita, founder of Panasonic, began his career as an apprentice in Osaka at age nine, and this story is often retold.