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Meaning

one's specialty, a signature piece

The art or routine a person does best. It can also refer to a habitual phrase or a characteristic gesture.

Example

部長はカラオケで必ず十八番の演歌を歌う。

At karaoke, our department head always sings their signature enka song.

Origin

In Tenpō 3 (1832), Ichikawa Danjūrō VII presented the Ichikawa family's signature plays as the Kabuki Jūhachiban (Eighteen Kabuki Plays), and the term spread as a word for one's specialty. Ohako is said to be short for hakoiri (kept in a box), meaning something precious put away in a box, and one theory holds that this is because the scripts of the eighteen plays were stored in boxes. However, some dictionaries regard the spelling as ateji based on the earlier practice of calling a kabuki actor's treasured hit pieces jūhachiban, and there is no settled view.

Sources