KANAE

Proverbs

Kotowaza are the proverbs of everyday Japan: passed from mouth to mouth for centuries and learned at school, they condense shared experience into an image everyone knows.

155 entries

By form All ProverbsFour charactersUntranslatable wordsStories behind wordsHaiku · By theme PatiencePerseveranceWorkDisciplineRelationsCourageHumilityLearningLifeSetback & ReboundNatureTime ·
  1. 001 Even a stone grows warm if you sit on it for three years.
  2. 002 Fall seven times, rise eight.
  3. 003 A journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step.
  4. 005 Even dust, piling up, becomes a mountain.
  5. 006 Dripping water wears through stone.
  6. 007 If you are in a hurry, take the long way round.
  7. 008 What is good, do quickly.
  8. 009 The best day to begin is the day you think of it.
  9. 010 Even monkeys fall from trees.
  10. 011 Even skilled hands let water slip through.
  11. 012 Failure is the foundation of success.
  12. 013 What one loves, one will do well.
  13. 014 Practice beats being taught.
  14. 017 The frog at the bottom of the well knows nothing of the great ocean.
  15. 018 Hearing a hundred times is not worth seeing once.
  16. 019 Proof beats argument.
  17. 020 Dumplings over flowers.
  18. 021 Gold coins to a cat.
  19. 022 Tap even a stone bridge before crossing it.
  20. 023 A staff before the fall.
  21. 024 Where there is preparation, there is no worry.
  22. 025 To care, add care.
  23. 026 Spilled water does not return to the tray.
  24. 027 Regret never comes first.
  25. 028 The stake that sticks out gets hammered down.
  26. 029 The skilled hawk hides its talons.
  27. 030 The riper the rice ear, the lower it bows its head.
  28. 031 To lose is to win.
  29. 032 Haste ruins the work.
  30. 033 A short temper is a losing temper.
  31. 034 Fortune comes to homes that laugh.
  32. 035 Illness starts with the spirits.
  33. 036 Like calls to like.
  34. 037 Touch vermilion and you turn red.
  35. 038 Kindness is never wasted.
  36. 039 A close neighbor beats a distant relative.
  37. 040 He who chases two hares catches neither.
  38. 041 The child of a frog is a frog.
  39. 042 A kite can give birth to a hawk.
  40. 043 The base of the lamp stands in darkness.
  41. 044 The doctor neglects his own health.
  42. 045 The dyer wears an undyed hakama.
  43. 046 For rice cakes, go to the rice-cake maker.
  44. 047 A skill always ends up helping.
  45. 048 Even those who think they have none have seven quirks.
  46. 050 Some insects even relish the bitter knotweed.
  47. 051 Where you live becomes the capital.
  48. 052 In the village, follow the village ways.
  49. 053 On a journey, a companion; in life, kindness.
  50. 054 Send the child you cherish on a journey.
  51. 055 The child does not know the parent's heart.
  52. 056 A child is the clamp of the home.
  53. 057 The eyes speak as much as the mouth.
  54. 058 The mouth is the source of misfortune.
  55. 059 Not saying is the flower.
  56. 060 Good medicine is bitter in the mouth.
  57. 061 Clothes dress up even a stable hand.
  58. 062 People are not what they seem.
  59. 063 Even unfed, the samurai holds his toothpick high.
  60. 064 Early rising earns three coins of profit.
  61. 066 Time flies like an arrow.
  62. 071 Tomorrow, tomorrow's wind will blow.
  63. 072 A rice cake fallen from the shelf.
  64. 073 A boat just when you need to cross.
  65. 074 Doing is easier than fearing.
  66. 076 Everything in life is like the old man's horse.
  67. 077 After the rain, the ground hardens.
  68. 078 Wait, and fair weather will come for the crossing.
  69. 079 The tallest dike fails through an ant's hole.
  70. 083 The unsown seed does not grow.
  71. 084 After ease comes hardship, after hardship comes ease.
  72. 086 What happens twice will happen three times.
  73. 087 The third time is the charm.
  74. 088 To ask is a moment's shame; not to ask is a lifetime's shame.
  75. 089 Watch others' conduct and mend your own.
  76. 090 Pinch yourself to know another's pain.
  77. 091 If the fish loves the water, the water will love the fish.
  78. 093 Better than the tortoise's shell, the merit of years.
  79. 094 The child on your back shows you the ford.
  80. 097 Too short for a sash, too long for a sleeve cord.
  81. 098 Catching a sea bream with a shrimp.
  82. 099 Accept a loss to gain later.
  83. 100 Buying cheap is losing your money.
  84. 101 Over the moon, gathering clouds; over blossoms, wind.
  85. 102 Snow does not break the willow.
  86. 103 There is not always a loach under the willow.
  87. 104 A mountain is not noble because it is tall.
  88. 105 When the wind blows, the bucket maker prospers.
  89. 106 The autumn sun drops like a well bucket.
  90. 112 One inch ahead lies darkness.
  91. 113 Even a one-inch insect has half an inch of spirit.
  92. 114 Strike while the iron is hot.
  93. 115 The neighbor's flowers are redder.
  94. 117 Standing, half a tatami; lying, one tatami.
  95. 118 A stomach eight-tenths full needs no doctor.
  96. 119 Too much is as bad as too little.
  97. 121 Begin with Kai.
  98. 122 He who travels a hundred leagues counts ninety as halfway.
  99. 123 Trade is like an ox's drool.
  100. 125 After victory, tighten your helmet cords.
  101. 126 One leaf falls, and we know autumn is coming to the world.
  102. 127 The large holds the small.
  103. 142 Hiding the head but not the rear.
  104. 143 Eye drops from the second floor.
  105. 144 Water on a burning stone.
  106. 145 A bee on a tear-streaked face.
  107. 146 Across the wide world, there are no demons.
  108. 149 Too many boatmen pull the boat up the mountain.
  109. 152 Unpolished jade does not shine.
  110. 153 The old fool moves the mountain.
  111. 154 Hardship is the seed of joy.
  112. 155 The hardships of youth — buy them if you must.
  113. 158 Rust comes from the blade itself.
  114. 159 The year's plan is drawn on New Year's morning.
  115. 170 Once past the throat, the burn is forgotten.
  116. 171 No smoke rises where there is no fire.
  117. 172 Ill-gotten money does not stay.
  118. 173 Honesty is the treasure of a lifetime.
  119. 174 Lying is the beginning of theft.
  120. 175 Blossoms last seven days.
  121. 176 Better fifty today than a hundred tomorrow.
  122. 177 Without far sight, near sorrows.
  123. 178 To see what is right and not do it is to lack courage.
  124. 179 The real fault is not to mend one's fault.
  125. 182 You cannot take the tiger's cub without entering its den.
  126. 183 Charge, even if you shatter.
  127. 189 A resolute will pierces even rock.
  128. 190 If pushing fails, try pulling.
  129. 191 At the dead end, a way opens.
  130. 193 Knowing when to withdraw is winning.
  131. 194 Of the thirty-six stratagems, retreat is the finest.
  132. 195 Even a walking dog runs into something.
  133. 205 Water on a frog's face.
  134. 206 A rumor lives but seventy-five days.
  135. 207 The outcome of a contest belongs also to the hour.
  136. 258 For all the gain of one's pains: exhaustion.
  137. 259 Braiding the rope after catching the thief.
  138. 263 What remains unseen is the flower.
  139. 264 To meet is to begin to part.
  140. 265 When abuse passes, reason withdraws.
  141. 266 Against a crying child and a local lord, no one wins.
  142. 267 There is fortune in what remains.
  143. 268 An empty stomach fights no battle.
  144. 269 One longs to pick the flower, but the branch is high.
  145. 270 The eyes are the mirror of the heart.
  146. 271 The name reveals the thing.
  147. 272 Learning calligraphy at sixty.
  148. 273 The world seems wide, and it is small.
  149. 274 Tomorrow, it may be me.
  150. 275 Let yourself be wrapped by what is longer than you.
  151. 276 Iris on the sixth, chrysanthemum on the tenth: one day too late.
  152. 277 Laughter is people's medicine.
  153. 278 First chase the flies above your own head.
  154. 283 Learning without thinking leads only to darkness.
  155. 284 Do not do to others what you would not wish for yourself.