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In Japanese, how do I refer to my mother's cousin? She and my mother share the
same great-grandparents. My mother's cousin's mother was the older sister of
my mother's father (my maternal grandfather). I think the English term for my
relationship to her is that she is my first cousin once removed (my mother's
cousin has no children, whereas many websites about calculating cousin
relations tend to want you to start from your generation and move outward
[i.e., my second cousin's mother is...]). I think if she had had children,
they would be my second cousins. Is this correct?

I am writing my first email to my mother's cousin's Japanese relative and I do
not know in what way the two of them are related (whether on her father's
side, meaning the addressee is also on my side of the family, or on her
mother's side, in which case the addressee is from the opposite side of her
family tree), but I want her to easily understand what my relation is to my
mother's cousin.

<http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%84%E3%81%A8%E3%81%93#.E3.81.84.E3.81.A8.E3.81.93.E9.81.95.E3.81.84>
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2014-06-10T05:53:58.683
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2014-06-10T07:56:56.043
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question
words definitions
Does「いとこ違い」mean "first cousin once removed" in Japanese?
According to
[Wikipedia](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B6%9A%E6%9F%84#.E5.BE.93.E4.BC.AF.E5.8F.94.E7.88.B6.E6.AF.8D.EF.BC.88.E3.81.84.E3.81.A8.E3.81.93.E3.81.8A.E3.81.98.E3.83.BB.E3.81.84.E3.81.A8.E3.81.93.E3.81.8A.E3.81.B0.EF.BC.89.E7.AD.89)
and [this article](http://blue.zero.jp/mr36/cshintou.html), 従伯叔父【いとこおじ】 (male)
or 従伯叔母【いとこおば】 (female) may be the specific words you're looking for. However,
anything further than いとこ (cousin), おじ/おば (uncle/aunt) is rarely used in
ordinary Japanese except for はとこ (second cousin).

So you should just say "母のいとこ", "母のいとこの母", etc. as long as you want to make
yourself understood without dictionaries.

"父方【ちちかた】の" or "母方【ははかた】の" are common words to say father's/mother's side.

> 母方【ははかた】の祖父【そふ】  
>  = grandfather on the mother's side = mother's father

So if you want to express "My mother's cousin's mother was the older sister of
my mother's father" simply yet specifically, I think "その人は、私の母の父方のいとこです。" is
appropriate.
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2014-06-10T07:42:39.783
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2014-06-10T07:56:56.043
2014-06-10T07:56:56.043
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answer