KANAE
103Japanese proverb ことわざ

柳の下にいつも泥鰌はいない

Yanagi no shita ni itsumo dojō wa inai

“There is not always a loach under the willow.”

The meaning

A success obtained once does not repeat on demand. Applying the recipe without checking conditions is fishing in a memory.

At the origin

Catching a fish under a willow once does not make the willow a fishpond.

The characters

  1. yanagiwillow
  2. noof (link)
  3. shitaunder
  4. いつも
  5. 泥鰌
  6. いない

The complete word-by-word reading, in KANAE.

ParticleLinks two words: possession or belonging, like “of”.

In practice

Before redoing "what worked", check that the conditions remain.

Themes

Similar proverbs

Related expressions

See also