Japan's Proverbs & Sayings

About this book

From a spear-and-shield salesman in a Chinese market to a tea master's one-time meeting, from the persimmon's eight years to the arrow of time — this is the complete English guide to Japan's proverbs, four-character idioms and words of wisdom. 200 entries in eight parts, arranged by where the sayings were born: the classics of China, the sutras and Zen gardens, the workshop and the shop counter, the farm and the shore, the human heart, the wheel of fortune, the turning years, and Japan's own home coinage. Every entry gives the saying with its Japanese characters and reading, tells the story it came from — naming the classic, the temple, the legend or the card game — draws out the wisdom inside it, and shows where you will meet it in Japan today. Origins are stated only where the record is firm; rival theories are marked as tradition, and imported lines, from Shelley to Shakespeare, are flagged on their faces. A book for travellers who have seen these words on scrolls and shrine boards, for speakers hunting a motto with a real source, and for anyone who believes a proverb is a story that learned to travel light.