The Hawk with Talent Hides its Talons

能ある鷹は爪を隠す (nō aru taka wa tsume o kakusu): the hawk with skill hides its talons. Real ability does not display itself; the hawk does not raise its talons to threaten, and the proverb is about restraint more than concealment. It stands in the oldest proverb list in Japanese, a manuscript of about 1590, and Edo writers used it every way: Bakin as praise, Gennai as a warning that the quiet ones are the swindlers, Atsutane objecting that in a blind world the quiet hawk is taken for a dead one. The cat that hides its claws is the same proverb with another animal.