To say you met someone politely, plain 会（あ）う has a dedicated humble verb: お目（め）にかかる. It is one of the most elegant idioms in the whole keigo system, because it is transparent once you read it literally — 目 is the honored person's "honorable eyes," and かかる means "to hang / come to rest upon." To meet a superior is to "come before your honorable eyes." That image lowers your act of meeting so that the encounter itself elevates the other person — and it is the humble counterpart to describing their side of the meeting honorifically.
お目にかかる = humble 会う (your side of the meeting)
お目にかかる is 謙譲語I (kenjōgo I): it humbles your action toward an honored person. You use it for meeting a client, a superior, or anyone you wish to raise. It conjugates on かかる as a regular godan verb: お目にかかる → お目にかかります → お目にかかった → お目にかかって, with potential お目にかかれる ("can meet").
はじめてお目にかかります。田中と申します。
hajimete o-me ni kakarimasu. Tanaka to mōshimasu
It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Tanaka.
明日お目にかかります。
ashita o-me ni kakarimasu
I'll meet you tomorrow.
先日お目にかかった田中でございます。
senjitsu o-me ni kakatta Tanaka de gozaimasu
I'm Tanaka, whom you met the other day.
The single most useful form is the potential, because polite Japanese loves to express meeting as a privilege one gets to have. お目にかかれて ("being able to meet you") opens the standard greeting of business life:
お目にかかれて光栄です。
o-me ni kakarete kōei desu
I'm honored to meet you.
一度お目にかかりたいのですが、ご都合はいかがでしょうか。
ichido o-me ni kakaritai no desu ga, go-tsugō wa ikaga deshō ka
I'd like to meet with you once — would that be convenient for you?
お目にかかれるのを楽しみにしております。
o-me ni kakareru no o tanoshimi ni shite orimasu
I'm looking forward to being able to meet you.
There is no direct honorific 会う — use お会いになる for their side
Many special humble verbs come with a matching special honorific (食べる has both 召し上がる and いただく; 見る has ご覧になる and 拝見する). 会う is different: there is no single special honorific verb for the superior's act of meeting. When you need to elevate their meeting, you fall back on the general honorific formula お〜になる → お会いになる, or the honorific passive 会われる.
| Whose meeting? | Form | Register |
|---|---|---|
| mine (humbled) | お目にかかる | special humble verb |
| the superior's (elevated) | お会いになる / 会われる | general honorific formula |
| neutral / between equals | 会う / お会いする | plain / mildly humble |
社長は明日、取引先の方とお会いになります。
shachō wa ashita, torihikisaki no kata to o-ai ni narimasu
The president will meet with the client tomorrow.
部長は先ほどお客様とお会いになりました。
buchō wa saki hodo o-kyakusama to o-ai ni narimashita
The manager met with the customer a little while ago.
Because there is no special honorific verb, this is one spot where the productive お〜になる pattern really earns its place — it is developed on the お〜になる page. Meanwhile the mildly humble お会いする (お〜する) is what you use for meeting a peer or in neutral polite contexts where お目にかかる would feel over-formal.
The minimal pair: お目にかかる vs お目にかける
Now the point that separates controlled keigo from memorized keigo. お目にかかる has a near-twin — お目にかける — and they are built on the exact same "your honorable eyes" image, differing only in one verb:
- お目にかかる — intransitive かかる ("hang / come to rest upon"). I come to rest upon your eyes → I meet you. Humble 会う.
- お目にかける — transitive かける ("place / hang [something] on"). I place [something] before your eyes → I show you. Humble 見せる.
こちらの資料をお目にかけます。
kochira no shiryō o o-me ni kakemasu
I'll show you these materials.
新作をぜひお目にかけたいと存じます。
shinsaku o zehi o-me ni kaketai to zonjimasu
I would very much like to show you the new work.
The grammar tells them apart cleanly: お目にかかる takes a person you meet (marked with と or に), while お目にかける takes a thing you show (marked with を). If there is a を-marked object being displayed, it is かける; if you are the one appearing, it is かかる.
先生にお目にかかって、作品をお目にかけました。
sensei ni o-me ni kakatte, sakuhin o o-me ni kakemashita
I met the teacher and showed her my work.
Note that お目にかける has a common synonym, ご覧に入れる ("to let you see"), which many speakers prefer because it is less easily confused. But the かかる／かける pair is worth mastering precisely because juggling them correctly is a classic marker of someone in real command of keigo.
Common mistakes
Using お目にかかる for meeting a peer. It is heavy, deferential humble language reserved for a superior or client; between equals it sounds absurdly formal. Use 会う or お会いする.
❌ 昨日、友達にお目にかかりました。
Way over-formal — you don't humble yourself before a friend. Use 会いました.
✅ 昨日、友達に会いました。
kinō, tomodachi ni aimashita
I met a friend yesterday.
Using お目にかかる for the superior's side of the meeting. It humbles you, so you can't apply it to the honored person's meeting. Their meeting is お会いになる.
❌ 社長が私にお目にかかりました。
Wrong direction — お目にかかる lowers the speaker; the president's meeting is elevated with お会いになりました.
✅ 社長が私にお会いになりました。
shachō ga watashi ni o-ai ni narimashita
The president met with me.
Confusing お目にかかる (meet) with お目にかける (show). Swapping かかる and かける reverses meaning entirely.
❌ このデザインにお目にかかっていただけますか。
Wrong verb — you want to SHOW the design, so it's お目にかける (or ご覧いただく); お目にかかる means to MEET.
✅ このデザインをご覧いただけますか。
kono dezain o goran itadakemasu ka
Could you take a look at this design?
Trying to make a passive ×お目にかかられる. お目にかかる is already fully humble; you never stack an honorific passive on it.
❌ 先生にお目にかかられて光栄です。
Wrong — お目にかかる is humble as-is; the passive garbles it. Use お目にかかれて.
✅ 先生にお目にかかれて光栄です。
sensei ni o-me ni kakarete kōei desu
I'm honored to have met the teacher.
Key takeaways
- お目にかかる is the special humble (謙譲語I) form of 会う — literally "to come before your honorable eyes" — for your own meeting of a superior.
- The workhorse form is the potential: お目にかかれて光栄です, お目にかかれるのを楽しみにしております.
- 会う has no special honorific verb; for the superior's side use the formula お会いになる (or 会われる), and お会いする for peers.
- お目にかける (transitive かける) is the near-twin meaning "to show" (humble 見せる) — a を-object means show, an appearing person means meet.
- Never passivize it (×お目にかかられる); it is humble already.
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