Like I can understand why 億 (10\^8) is a thing but like why on earth does 10\^48 have a kanji??? Who thought that quindecilion would need a kanji : 極? Or 垓 whose only usage is to say hundred quintillion or 10\^20??
I’m guessing (hoping at least) that they just didn’t do it for no reason so I’m really curious to know if there is a backstory or some logical reason behind it
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According to [Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%9E%93), it’s been in use for that meaning since the early Edo Period. In other words, they did it because they wanted to do math with big numbers, and needed some way or other to represent them!
Note though that none of these kanji’s “only usage” is these big numbers. They were all preexisting kanji that had other meanings first. They were just repurposed for mathematical use.
Because Buddhism.
There are extremely large numbers found in the sutras and other texts that would be hard to Express in Japanese (or Chinese obviously, where they likely showed up first) otherwise.
why not, they have kanji for thousand of concepts 🤣
*Why does English have specific words for crazy high number ? Like hundred quintillion for 垓 or quindecillion for 極?*
Joke aside (though it has some truth in my opinion), a quick look at the kanjis meaning would quickly show that they have other meanings than just these numbers, and probably got the number meaning as an extension of their other meanings. For example 極 can mean poles (like the nort and south poles) or extreme/most thus by extension it got to mean the number 10^48.
Also how else would you propose Chinese would represent these numbers? (Yes Chinese since that’s where these kanji come from)
It’s like how we have specific names in English for a lot of the powers of 1000 (Million, Billion, Trillion). Japanese does the same, but with powers of 10,000, which makes the value seem quite specific in English.
what about a gazillion or a gorillion or a brazillion
Religious metaphore and inflation pre-prep, most probably.