晩年

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 晩年 (ばんねん) means the later or final period of a person's life. It appears as a span of residence and the time when a work was produced.
• Basic usage: A painter spends later years by the sea; letters written during that period are eventually displayed.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Place where later life was spent and work created during it
  • 晩年を過ごす treats it as a life span, while 晩年に書いた locates the writing in time. It does not mean the end of a calendar year.