稼業

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 稼業 is a noun read かぎょう, referring to a livelihood or a trade carried on within a family.
• Basic usage: Use 家の稼業を継ぐ for taking over a household trade and を稼業にする for making a particular activity one's livelihood.
  • 彼は父から家の稼業を継いだ。 describes taking over the family trade from a father; 祖母は菓子作りを稼業にしていた。 says that the grandmother made sweets for a living.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• 稼業を継いだ
  • 継ぐ means taking over work done by a predecessor, and 父から identifies the person from whom it was inherited.
• を稼業にしていた
  • This pattern means making the preceding activity an ongoing means of livelihood, not merely doing it occasionally as a hobby.
• 稼業 and 家業
  • 家業 centers on work carried on by a family, while 稼業 can refer both to such an inherited trade and to work an individual makes a livelihood.