Home Is Where You Live

住めば都 (sumeba miyako): live there, and it is the capital. 住めば is the verb to dwell in its conditional form, once you live there; 都 is the capital, and in its old sense the capital was wherever the emperor resided. That is how the proverb began. In 1183 a Taira courtier at sea in exile, the child emperor aboard, wrote that since his lord dwelt there the moon over the water was the palace moon, and then that he still longed for the capital. By the Muromachi period the emperor had dropped out of the sentence and it was said to anyone: live anywhere, and it is a capital. A book of 1614 gives its logic whole, and where you do not live, even the capital is a journey; the first proverb collections of the 1650s file it beside even hell is home. Any place, however remote, becomes home once you have lived in it.

住めば都 is perfect for a housewarming gift, especially for someone living in a new area. This is a great reminder that no matter how different the place, it will become home.