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明日は明日の風が吹く ashita wa ashita no kaze ga fuku Tomorrow Is Another Day

This is a philological study of the Japanese proverb 明日は明日の風が吹く (ashita wa ashita no kaze ga fuku). It spans a young rake's mouth in a 1784 novel of the pleasure quarter to a housewife's answer in an 1865 kabuki scene, and examines the legend that the line was translated from the American film Gone with the Wind, whose Japanese line it in fact predates by a century and a half.

Japanese Scroll of Tomorrow Is Another Day (ashita wa ashita no kaze ga fuku) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Tomorrow Is Another Day (ashita wa ashita no kaze ga fuku)

Tomorrow Is Another Day (ashita wa ashita no kaze ga fuku) on a traditional Japanese Scroll by Master Eri Takase.

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Abstract

明日は明日の風が吹く, tomorrow, tomorrow's wind will blow, is a Japanese proverb in print by 1784, in a young man's mouth in a novel of the pleasure quarter, eighty years before the dictionaries' first citation. The tradition reads it two ways: a shrug at what cannot be helped, and a housewife's hope that a better wind may come. A widespread legend holds the line was translated from Scarlett O'Hara's tomorrow is another day in the Japanese release of Gone with the Wind; the proverb is in fact a century and a half older, and the film's translator borrowed it, not the reverse.

Overview

The sense. One sense, with two faces. The dictionaries from 1910 to today read it as a rule against 取越苦労, borrowing tomorrow's trouble, and Fujii Otoo 藤井乙男's gloss adds be at ease. The readers split it: in the rake of 1784, the carter of 1898 and Kitahara Hakushū 北原白秋's bohemian it is let it blow, a shrug; in お賤's answer of 1865 and 言泉's note it is a better wind may come, a hope. The older shape with 又, another wind, leans to the second. The proverb has never been fatalism in the dictionaries; it has sometimes been fatalism in the mouth.

The words. 明日 is tomorrow, read あす in the 1784 witness and あした in the 1865 one; あす is the older and more literary reading, あした the spoken one [1]. は … の doubles the topic, as for tomorrow, tomorrow's, which is the proverb's shape and the shape of its kin, 明日は明日、今日は今日. 風, kaze, is the wind, and in this family the wind is fortune, the way things blow; a wife in an 1865 play makes the figure explicit by answering the proverb with a better wind may come too. 吹く, fuku, blows; the 1784 form ふかふ is the Edo spoken future. Half the witnesses carry a 又, again: 明日は又明日の風が吹く, tomorrow another wind will blow, and it is in the oldest.

The proverb in English. No bilingual dictionary from Hepburn 1872 to the Standard of 1946 renders the proverb; the Meiji dictionaries have another day only for 後日 and 他日. The English equations are postwar: Tomorrow is another day (英語ことわざ教訓辞典, ことわざを知る辞典), Tomorrow will take care of itself (プログレッシブ和英, JMdict), and JMdict's literal, tomorrow, the winds of tomorrow will blow. No printed English proverb book is known to carry it.

The historical record

1784. Tsukitei Kashō 月亭可笑, 角鶏卵, a novel of the 内藤新宿 quarter. A young man, 粂, has forged his father's seal on a promissory note and cannot pay. Asked what he will do: どふのこふのと此ひどい中から仕かたはねへが、又あすはあすの風がふかふはさ, nothing to be done in such a mess, but tomorrow another wind will blow, and he worries only about the morning's scolding. The line is already a saying in his mouth, unexplained, so the proverb is older than the book, and no earlier witness is known [2].

1865. Kawatake Mokuami 河竹黙阿弥, 上総綿小紋単地, act six. The 精選版日本国語大辞典's first citation, and the finest scene the proverb has [3]. 市兵衛 and お賤 are counting their last coins in a basket, a 笊; the pawnshop is exhausted; a worn under-kimono is to be carried to the lender. 市兵「まあ、差掛つて今夜の所を、明日は明日の風が吹けば。 お賤「ほんにさうでござんす、一寸延びれば尋とやら、又よい風もござんせう, "Well, for tonight, at a pinch; tomorrow's wind blows tomorrow." "True; an inch stretched becomes a fathom, they say, and a good wind may come too." The reading あした is printed beside the word.

1889 to 1908. The novelists. Udagawa Bunkai 宇田川文海: 出來たことなら仕方がない明日は明日の風が吹くだらう [4]. Hirotsu Ryūrō 広津柳浪, 1898, a carter over his cup: 酒でも明日は又明日の風か吹くぺいから [5]. Murakami Namiroku 村上浪六, 1908: また明日は明日の風が吹くよ、實は一日、飮まず食ずだからね [6]. The proverb in the mouths of people with nothing.

1893 to 1934. The dictionaries. 古今俚諺類聚 (1893) and its successors list it [7]; 皇国俚諺叢 (1901) prints 又あすはあすの神がまもる, tomorrow's god keeps tomorrow, as its second half [8]; Fujii's 諺語大辞典 (1910): 【明日ハ又明日ノ風ガ吹ク】明日の事は明日の運命に委せて、安んずべし, leave tomorrow's business to tomorrow's fate and be at ease, with no source [9]; 大日本国語辞典 (1915): 未來の事は、その時の運命に任せて、取越苦勞をすべからず, do not borrow trouble [10]; 言泉 (1922) adds the practical note that when the time comes there will be some expedient; 俚諺大辞典 (1933) calls it the same proverb as 明日は明日の神が守る [11].

1920 to 1938. The readers. Hakushū uses it for what a sparrow is not: 明日は明日の風が吹くと云ふやうな自棄くそなボヘミヤンの心, the reckless bohemian heart [12]. Gonda Yasunosuke 権田保之助 (1922) reads the Edo craftsman who kept no money overnight by it [13]. Enchō 円朝, in a story told in the 1880s and printed in 1927, gives it to the same townsman: 明日は明日の風が吹かア、男は裸體百貫 [14]. The 高島易断 almanacs of 1921 and 1930 hand it out as a month's fortune [15]. Sugiyama Heisuke 杉山平助 (1938) hears in it a Chinese patience he calls sullen [16].

1958. A film and a song. Inoue Umetsugu 井上梅次's film 明日は明日の風が吹く, with Ishihara Yūjirō 石原裕次郎, and Yūjirō's song of the same name: the proverb as a title [1].

The dictionaries today. デジタル大辞泉: 明日はまた、別の成り行きになるので、くよくよするな、の意, tomorrow will turn out otherwise, so do not fret. The ことわざを知る辞典 quotes Ishimure Michiko 石牟礼道子 in 1974, 明日は明日の風の吹く、と思うてばかり暮らしよりました, and gives the English Tomorrow is another day [1].

What is not a source. No dictionary names a source, and the honest state is that none is known: Fujii gives none, the 日国 gives a usage. The kin the dictionaries set beside it are pairings: 明日は明日の神が守る; 明日の事は明日案じよ, worry about tomorrow tomorrow, which the 1915 and 1933 dictionaries pair with the Tang poet Luo Yin 羅隱's couplet 今朝有酒今朝醉、明日愁來明日愁; and the Chinese 船到橋頭自然直, the boat straightens itself when it reaches the bridge, which two readers of 1925 set beside it. And a legend, named as one: that the proverb comes from the Japanese Gone with the Wind, where Scarlett's last line, After all, tomorrow is another day, is rendered 明日は明日の風が吹く. The rendering is real and everywhere repeated, unattributed; the proverb is a century and a half older than the film, so the translator borrowed it, not the reverse.

Today. Sold as Tomorrow Is Another Day. The house title takes the film's line, and it is the equation every modern dictionary gives; word for word the proverb says tomorrow, tomorrow's wind will blow, and the title keeps the equation and lets the wind go. What a rendering must keep is the wind, because the wife's answer depends on it. The English equation is postwar, and the film only lent the proverb its fame.

A reading

A 1784 line in a young rake's mouth, and an 1865 exchange between a husband and wife over their last coins, in which the wife's answer, a good wind may come too, is better than the proverb. My own reading: the proverb has two faces, the townsman's let it blow and the housewife's a better wind may come; the older shape with 又 leans to the second.

References

  1. 「明日は明日の風が吹く」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版 日本国語大辞典・ことわざを知る辞典・大辞泉プラス, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/明日は明日の風が吹く-424516
  2. 月亭可笑『角鶏卵』, 1784, National Diet Library pid 2534171, scan 24; 1916 typeset, pid 1884152, scan 144. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2534171/1/24
  3. 河竹黙阿弥『上総綿小紋単地』, act 6, in 『黙阿弥全集』第21巻, 1926, National Diet Library pid 1884536, scan 428. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1884536/1/428
  4. 宇田川文海『貧福』, 1889, National Diet Library pid 888015, scan 76. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/888015/1/76
  5. 広津柳浪『女馬士』, 1898, National Diet Library pid 885753, scan 81. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/885753/1/81
  6. 村上浪六『八軒長屋』, 1908, National Diet Library pid 887793, scan 50. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/887793/1/50
  7. 『古今俚諺類聚』, 1893, National Diet Library pid 767886. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/767886
  8. 『皇国俚諺叢』, 1901, National Diet Library pid 767884, scan 230. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/767884/1/230
  9. 藤井乙男『諺語大辞典』, 有朋堂, 1910, National Diet Library pid 862766, scan 27. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/862766/1/27
  10. 『大日本国語辞典』, 1915, National Diet Library pid 954645, scan 44. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/954645/1/44
  11. 中野吉平『俚諺大辞典』, 1933, National Diet Library pid 1453041, scan 9. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1453041/1/9
  12. 北原白秋『雀の生活』, 1920, National Diet Library pid 962907, scan 49. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/962907/1/49
  13. 権田保之助『民衆娯楽の基調』, 1922, National Diet Library pid 971732, scan 48. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/971732/1/48
  14. 『円朝全集』, told in the 1880s, printed 1927, National Diet Library pid 1882523, scan 169. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1882523/1/169
  15. 高島易断『御家宝』, 1921, National Diet Library pid 2535561, scan 11. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2535561/1/11
  16. 杉山平助『支那と支那人と日本』, 1938, National Diet Library pid 1268079, scan 32. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1268079/1/32

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Fable 5.1, Takase Studios LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Checked · grok-4.6 (xAI), 2026-09-05, citations · gpt-6-astra (OpenAI), 2026-09-05, citations