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逢うは別れの始め au wa wakare no hajime Meeting is only the beginning of separation

Japanese Scroll of Meeting is only the beginning of separation (au wa wakare no hajime) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
逢うは別れの始め Original Scroll by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Abstract

逢うは別れの始め, to meet is the beginning of parting, comes, as the デジタル大辞泉 has it, from a Chinese line, 合者離之始, that Bai Juyi 白居易 wrote in 810 or after, in couplets that echo the Buddhist sutras' teaching that meeting must have parting. In Japanese the earliest example the 精選版日本国語大辞典 gives is a lover's line in the poetry of Fujiwara no Teika 藤原定家, of 1232, with the same figure in his contemporary Fujiwara no Ietaka 藤原家隆, and the proverb's own form is in the first printed books, the Muromachi tale 熊野の本地 among them, by the 1640s, and on the stage in Chikamatsu Monzaemon's puppet play 蝉丸, first staged by 1693, in a blind prince's farewell to his music. The four-character term 会者定離, which the Japanese sources read here trace to the Buddhist books, is in no text CBETA serves, the Taishō and the Zokuzōkyō among them; the sutras themselves say 會必有離, and the four characters are a Japanese crystallization of that thought. In the English that the Internet Archive's full text and our shelf reach, the proverb is carried from Hepburn's dictionary of 1888, mostly in Hepburn's plain words; Hearn's list of Buddhist proverbs in 1899 gave it an only the Japanese does not have, and the house title keeps Hearn's sentence.

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Overview

The sense. One sense and one use, from the deathbed sermon to the puppet stage to the modern novel: everything that meets parts, and therefore do not grieve. The sutra says 勿懷憂, Chikamatsu Monzaemon 近松門左衛門's prince says 思ふまじ歎かじ, and Nakazato Kaizan 中里介山's character says 歎くことはねえだあね. It is a sentence of consolation and resignation. The modern reading that turns it toward gratitude, that meetings are precious because they end, is the 一期一会 reading, and it is newer than every witness above; the older feeling stands beside it, not against it. The only movement is register: in the poets it is the lover's dawn parting; on the stage it is a blind man giving up his music; in the dictionaries it is 無常, impermanence, plain.

The words. 逢う, au, is to meet, and in the oldest Japanese witnesses it is the lovers' meeting: the sentence begins its Japanese life in poems about the parting at dawn after one night. 別れ, wakare, is parting; 始め, hajime, is beginning. A variant has 基, motoi, foundation, in place of 始め. The 1910 proverb dictionary's gloss is the plainest: 逢ふといふことあれば、既に別るゝことあるを豫期せざるべからず, where there is meeting, parting is already to be expected [1]. Under the Japanese sentence is a Chinese line, 合者離之始, what is joined is the beginning of what parts, and under that a Buddhist term, 会者定離, e-sha-jō-ri, those who meet are fixed to part, which the Japanese sources read here trace to the Buddhist books: the Edo manuscript to 佛書, the 1910 dictionary and the 日国 to the 遺教經, below. It is in no sutra CBETA serves; the sutras say it in other words, below.

The proverb in English. The earliest known English, as far as the Internet Archive's full text on nine romanized and eight English forms and the shelf's text layers reach, is Hepburn's fourth edition of 1888, which sets the proverb under the verb au: meeting is the beginning of parting [2]; the second edition of 1872 has the verb and no proverb [3]. Inoue Jūkichi 井上十吉's 英語学講義録 of 1897 to 1898 repeats Hepburn's sentence [4], and Lafcadio Hearn's In Ghostly Japan of 1899 lists it among its Buddhist proverbs as Meeting is only the beginning of separation, with a note that this proverb refers directly to the sutra-text, Shōja hitsumetsu è-sha-jori, "All that live must surely die; and all that meet will surely part" [5]. From there two lines run side by side: Hepburn's plain equation in Rice 1909, Redesdale 1917, Rose-Innes 1920, Champion 1938, Blyth 1942, Okada 1958, Buchanan 1965 and Zona 1996; and the idiom We meet only to part in Saitō 1915 and Kenkyusha 1974 and 1983, with 竹原's Standard dictionary giving We never meet but part for 會者定離 by 1928, and its abridgment of 1941 We never meet but we part [6]. The house title is Hearn's sentence, only included. The English equivalent the ことわざを知る辞典 offers, the best of friends must part, is an English proverb of its own, from Chaucer to Scott [7].

The historical record

401 to 413. The Buddha's last sermon, in the Chinese traditionally credited to Kumārajīva 鳩摩羅什, who by the usual dates worked at Chang'an from 401 until his death in 413. 遺教經 (佛垂般涅槃略說教誡經). The dying Buddha to the monks: 汝等比丘，勿懷憂惱。若我住世一劫會亦當滅，會而不離終不可得 … 是故當知，世皆無常，會必有離，勿懷憂也, monks, do not grieve. Were I to stay in the world an aeon, the meeting would still end; to meet and never part cannot be had. Know therefore that all the world is impermanent and meeting must have parting, and do not grieve [8]. The 涅槃經 (大般涅槃經) has the same thought in verse, to the layman 純陀 who has offered the last meal and begs the Buddha to stay: 夫盛必有衰，合會有別離, what flourishes must decline; what comes together has its parting [9].

810 or after. Bai Juyi 白居易, the poem 和夢遊春詩一百韻. A hundred-couplet answer to his friend Yuan Zhen 元稹's 夢遊春詩, which the head note says Yuan sent after he had reached Jiangling, 微之既到江陵; Yuan was sent down to Jiangling in 810 [10]. Bai's own head note quotes Yuan Zhen's preface and says that his reply's final chapter returns to the Buddha's way, 其章旨卒歸於此, as the 法華經 and the 維摩經 lead through the burning house and the brothel back to the truth. In the closing run of couplets, which tells the friend to take up the meditation sutras and read, 欲除憂惱病，當取禪經讀, come the lines 合者離之始，樂兮憂所伏, what is joined is the beginning of what parts; joy is where sorrow lies hidden. The Chinese line echoes the sutras' teaching, in couplets that send the friend to them, and it is the line the デジタル大辞泉 names as the proverb's source (The dictionaries today, below) [11].

1232. Fujiwara no Teika, in the 洞院百首, a poem on the lover's parting at dawn. はじめよりあふはわかれと聞きながら暁知らで人を恋ひける, from the first I had heard that to meet is to part, and still I loved, not knowing the dawn. The 精選版日本国語大辞典 gives this as the first Japanese attestation [12]. The poem was made for the hundred-poem sequence at the house of the Tōin regent, and the imperial anthology 続拾遺和歌集, finished in 1278 [13], keeps it in its third book of love poems under that heading, 洞院攝政の家の百首の歌に、後朝戀, for the hundred poems at the house of the Tōin regent, on love the morning after; the 国歌大観's typeset of 1901 to 1903 prints it はじめよりあふは別と聞きながら曉しらで人を戀ひける [14]. Teika's own collection, 拾遺愚草, keeps the poem in the sequence itself, which it heads 關白左大臣家百首 貞永元年四月, the hundred poems at the house of the Chancellor and Minister of the Left, in the fourth month of 1232; the host is Kujō Norizane 九条教実, who was Minister of the Left and Chancellor before he became regent that year, and was called the Tōin regent [15]. There the poem is the sixty-fifth of the sequence, under the same heading 後朝戀, and the 続国歌大観's typeset of 1910 to 1911 prints it 始より逢ふは別と聞きながら曉知らで人を戀ひける [16]. Fujiwara no Ietaka, his contemporary, has a related figure, a meeting of one night and the morning's parting: いつのまに年月のごと思ふらん逢ふは一夜のけさの別れを, when did it come to seem like months and years, this meeting of one night, this morning's parting. It stands among the love poems of his collection 壬二集, compiled from his drafts by 1245 [17], under the heading 戀の歌あまた詠み侍りし時, when I composed many poems on love, which the 続国歌大観's typeset of 1910 to 1911 prints いつの間に年月の如思ふ覽逢ふは一夜の今朝の別を [18]. The Edo manuscript below quotes Ietaka's poem under the proverb, and so does the proverb dictionary of 1910 [19] [1].

Thirteenth century. 平家物語, book ten. The four-character term in Japanese: 生者必滅、会者定離はうき世の習にて候也, that the living must die and those who meet must part is the way of this floating world, said by a monk to Taira no Koremori 維盛 before his drowning. This is the 日国's first attestation of 会者定離 [20]. A 1910 annotated typeset of the chapter, 維盛入水の事, prints it as the holy man's consolation, after he reminds Koremori that even one night's pillow shared by husband and wife is a bond of five hundred lives: 生者必滅會者定離はうき世の習にて候ふなり [21]. 宝物集, Taira no Yasuyori 平康頼's collection of Buddhist tales, first put together after 1179 and enlarged in several recensions [22], has it in its three-volume text as printed in 1648: 生あるものはかならすおはりあり、あふものはかならすわかれあり、是を生者必滅会者定離といふ, what lives must end, what meets must part; this is called 生者必滅会者定離 [23]. Which recension first carried the term, and so whether it is older than the 平家, is not settled here.

Fifteenth century. The Noh play 楊貴妃, attributed to Konparu Zenchiku 金春禅竹. よしそれとても、遁れえぬ會者定離とぞときく時は、逢ふこそ別れなりけれ, and even so, hearing that those who meet must part is not to be escaped, the meeting itself was the parting. The proverb's shape in a chorus. The wording is Fujii Otoo 藤井乙男's quotation of the play [1]; the 1908 typeset reads 遁れ得ぬ。會者定離ぞと聞く時は。 [24]

The 1620s to the 1640s. The proverb in the first printed books. The proverb's own form, in prose, before any stage, and each time said to console. きのふはけふの物語, a book of jokes printed in the Kan'ei era (1624–44), has a learned priest call on someone, ある人, grieving for a companion of many years: 御なげきは尤なれども、あふはわかれのもとゐにて候, your grief is natural, but to meet is the foundation of parting, the variant with 基, which the 1910 dictionary cites from 小性氣質 [25] [1]. That book is 和国小性形気 of 1720, a book of sketches of boy lovers, and its fourth book has the line where a man resolves to leave the capital: 何事も前世の業、逢は別のもとひをさとり, taking everything as the karma of past lives, and understanding that to meet is the foundation of parting [26]. 熊野の本地, the story of the consort 五衰殿 and the origin of the Kumano gods, was in existence by the fifteenth century [27]. In a print of the end of the Kan'ei or the Shōhō era, the 1640s, the consort, taken into the mountains to be killed, says it before she turns to the child she carries: このみちかへりかたし。あふはわかれのはじめなり。此たひのがれたりとも, there is no road back; to meet is the beginning of parting; even if I escaped this time [28]; a print of 1668 titled 御すいでん has the proverb sentence; on its leaf the column ends one short, faint kana after このみちかへり, which its text layer reads は, and the next column opens あふは, so the 1640s print's かへりかたし is not there [29]. 小町草紙, another tale of the Muromachi period, printed in the Shibukawa collection of 御伽草子 in the early eighteenth century [30] [31], has Ariwara no Narihira 在原業平 say it to the ghost of Ono no Komachi 小野小町, with its twin: あふはわかれのはじめ。うまるゝは死すべきはじめ, to meet is the beginning of parting; to be born is the beginning of death [32]. Every copy is later than its tale; when the line entered either tale is not settled here.

By 1693. Chikamatsu Monzaemon, 蝉丸, a puppet play. The proverb form on the stage. The 精選版日本国語大辞典 puts the first staging before the second month of 1693; the staging at the Takemoto-za in 1701 is the dated one [33]. The blind prince Semimaru 蝉丸, grieving aloud for his lost 直姫 and not knowing that she is beside him, throws down his biwa and plectrum: 『南無三寶叶はぬ事に迷ふたり』逢ふは別れの始め、獨りとゞまる道ならず、色も匂ひも一盛り、ア、思ふまじ歎かじと, "Heaven help me, I have lost my way over what cannot be"; to meet is the beginning of parting, and no one stays behind alone; color and scent have their one season; ah, I will not think of it, I will not grieve, and he sings his own poem on the Ōsaka barrier. Two acolytes then read the poem for him: 內には則ち會者定離哀別離苦の理、逢ふは別れの始めと示し, within it lies the truth that those who meet must part and that parting from the loved is suffering; it shows that to meet is the beginning of parting. The proverb is said to stop grieving, and the acolytes call the prince's poem 今の悟の詠歌, a poem of awakening [34].

1772. 三千世界色修行, a book of the floating world. Opening the chapter in which the courtesan Takao 高雄 falls ill and dies: 會者定離のことはり、今にはじめぬ事ながら、さだめなき世のならひ、あふはわかれのはじめぞかし, the truth that those who meet must part, nothing new, the way of an uncertain world: to meet is the beginning of parting. A commonplace by now [35].

By 1830. 倭訓栞, the dictionary of Tanikawa Kotosuga 谷川士清 (1709–1776). The dictionary was printed in parts from 1777, the year after its compiler's death, to 1887 [36]. Its first part, 前編, has the proverb under あふ with two sources and no Buddhist one: 會ハ別れの始といふ諺ハ文集ニ合者離之始とみゆ, the proverb 'to meet is the beginning of parting' is seen in the collected works as 合者離之始, and then Ietaka's poem from the 壬二集. The copy read is the 前編's second volume in a woodblock print that carries no date of its own and that the National Diet Library dates 1830 [37].

Before 1841. 日本俗諺集, an Edo manuscript collection of proverbs. An undated copy in the 輪池叢書: 輪池 was the 号 of Yashiro Hirokata 屋代弘賢 (1758–1841), and the copy bears the stamp of 不忍文庫, the name he gave his library; the National Diet Library's record names 山口安固 (春水, 1692–1771) as author for the volume, which binds four works, without saying of which. The etymology written down: あふハ別の始 佛書ニ會者定離之說あり是より出たる諺なり 白氏文集曰合者離之始樂兮憂所伏, to meet is the beginning of parting: the Buddhist books have the teaching that those who meet must part, and the proverb comes from that; the collected works of Bai say, what is joined is the beginning of what parts, joy is where sorrow lies hidden. Then, on the next leaf, Ietaka's poem. Two layers, Buddhist and Chinese, both right, where 谷川's dictionary gave the Chinese alone, and the Meiji proverb dictionaries read for this history copy them [19].

1910. Fujii Otoo, 諺語大辞典. 【逢フハ別レノハジメ】 with the gloss above, Ietaka's poem, the 涅槃經 line, Bai Juyi's couplet and the Noh chorus; the variant 【逢フハ別レノモトヰ】 with a citation from 小性氣質, undated there, which is book four of 和国小性形気 (1720) [26]; and 【會者定離】 with the 平家 line, the 童子教 and the 遺教經 [1].

What is not a source. The four characters 会者定離 are not in the Buddhist canon. The exact string 會者定離 returns nothing in a full-text search of every text CBETA serves, the Taishō and the Zokuzōkyō among them, where the same search for 會必有離 returns thirty-four texts [38]; Ding Fubao 丁福保's 佛學大辭典 gives four sutra sources for the term and none carries it, each saying 會必有離, 合會有別離 or 合會有離 instead [39]. Nor is it in the Lotus Sutra's 譬喩品, which has 愛別離苦 and not 是故会者定離 [40]. The 日国 derives the term from the 遺教經's 世皆無常、会必有離, 出たことば, and quotes it from no sutra [20]. The four-character form is a Japanese, or at least extra-canonical, crystallization of what the sutras say, first known, as the 日国 has it, in the 平家物語, and in the 宝物集 as printed.

The dictionaries today. デジタル大辞泉: 《白居易「和夢遊春詩一百韻」の「合うは離るるの始め」から》会った人とはいつか必ず別れなければならない。無常のたとえ. ことわざを知る辞典 has Kaizan turning it round to console: 会うは別れのはじめ、別れは会うことのはじめなんだから、歎くことはねえだあね, meeting is the beginning of parting, and parting the beginning of meeting, so there is nothing to grieve about [41].

The proverb in English

1888. James Curtis Hepburn, A Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary, fourth edition, under AU. hidoi me ni atta, met with, or suffered great trouble; au wa wakare no hajime, meeting is the beginning of parting. The proverb enters English as an example sentence under the verb, and the abridged edition of 1903 keeps it [2].

1897 to 1898. Inoue Jūkichi, 英語学講義録, the composition exercises, page 56. Meeting is the beginning of parting. Hepburn's sentence to the word, set as a model translation on a leaf that also renders After a rain, the soil hardens and Even a monkey sometimes falls from a tree [4].

1899. Lafcadio Hearn, In Ghostly Japan, Little, Brown, "Japanese Buddhist Proverbs", page 168. Au wa wakare no hajime. Meeting is only the beginning of separation. Third in a list Hearn chose to illustrate certain effects of Buddhist teaching upon popular thought and speech. The only is Hearn's; the Japanese has none [5].

1909 to 1938. A Japanese proverb in English books. Wallace and Frances Rice's The Wealth of Friendship (1909) sets Meeting is the beginning of parting, signed Japanese Proverb, in its chapter on friends who are gone, page 183 [42]. The Japan Magazine of April 1910, under Proverbs from the Japanese (page 184 by the issue's contents), opens its list with Meeting is the beginning of separation, as the issue's text layer reads it [43]. Lord Redesdale's Further Memories (1917), page 45: There is a Japanese proverb which says: "Meeting is the beginning of parting." Pregnant, indeed, are those six words [44]. Champion's Racial Proverbs (1938) prints Meeting is the beginning of parting, as the Internet Archive's full-text index reads it; the index does not show the section [45]. Hepburn's plain equation each time, without Hearn's only.

1915. Saitō Hidesaburō 斎藤秀三郎, Saito's Idiomological English-Japanese Dictionary, page 787, under meet. We meet only to part. 逢ふは別れの始め。 An English idiom set against the proverb, beside I wish we could meet never to part [46].

1920. Arthur Rose-Innes, Conversational Japanese for Beginners. au wa wakare no hajime: the meeting is the beginning of the separation [47].

1928. 竹原常太, スタンダード和英大辞典, page 159, under esha-jōri. We never meet but part, for 會者定離, and not the proverb; the abridged スタンダード和英辞典 of 1941 has We never meet but we part [6]. Brinkley's dictionary of 1896, read in its twelfth printing of 1907, had already put the pair in English, under hitsumetsu: the living must die, and those who meet must part again [48].

1942. R. H. Blyth, Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics. To accept short things as short, long things as long, the passage of time as the passage of time, to realise fully that meeting is the beginning of parting, life is the beginning of death, means to accept Reality: Hepburn's sentence as English prose, with no Japanese beside it [49]. Blyth's Haiku, volume two, Spring (1950), has it the same way under the cherry blossoms: Meeting is the beginning of parting, and in the presence of such beauty this feeling of time is intensified [50]. Volume three, Summer–Autumn (1952), uses it again of Shiki's verse on a man who walks into a summer grove and leaves no trace: It is as inevitable, as irrevocable, as tragic as death. All meeting is the beginning of parting [51].

1958. Okada, Japanese Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, Japan Travel Bureau. Au wa wakare no hajimari. Meeting is the beginning of parting. This is a saying of Buddhist origin, with the variant hajimari [52].

1961. Brower, Japanese Court Poetry, Stanford University Press. Teika's poem of 1232 in English, dated there to his seventieth year: Although I heard / From the outset that a meeting / Can only mean to part, / I gave myself to love for you / Unconscious of the coming dawn. The proverb's first Japanese witness, translated, with the same only Hearn gave the proverb [53].

1965. Daniel Crump Buchanan, Japanese Proverbs and Sayings, University of Oklahoma Press, pages 164, 170 and 171. Under pessimism: Au wa wakari no hajimari, so printed: "To meet is the beginning of parting." This saying can be traced to the pessimistic philosophy of Buddhism which teaches that in this world we meet only to separate; and 生者必滅会者定離 twice, Living persons are doomed to decay, those who meet are bound to part and those who meet are destined to part [54].

1974 and 1983. Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, fourth edition, and the New Collegiate, third edition. We meet only to part, under 会う in the fourth edition and under 別れ in the New Collegiate. The fourth edition's 会者定離 has We never meet without parting. / Those who meet must part, and its 離合集散, meeting and parting, has ～は世の常である: To meet is to part in this world. / We never meet but to part. / To meet and part is the way of the world [55] [56].

1996. Guy Zona, Even Withered Trees Give Prosperity to the Mountain, Simon and Schuster, page 77. Meeting is the beginning of parting. Hepburn's line to the word, a century on, in a collection that names no source [57]. Not in Galef (1987, 2000, 2012) or Trimnell (2004).

The equivalent. The best of friends must part. The English proverb the ことわざを知る辞典 sets beside the Japanese has its own history: Chaucer's Alwey frendes may nat ben yfeere about 1385, Chapman's Friends must part in 1611, Scott's The best of friends must part, Flibbertigibbet in 1821, as Speake dates and prints them [7]; Wilson's third edition dates the Chaucer about 1380 and the Chapman about 1602, and prints Scott's line The best friends must part [58]. An equivalent, not a rendering: it has no meeting in it.

Today. JMdict: we meet only to part; meeting is the first step to parting [59]. The ことわざを知る辞典 offers The best of friends must part. The house title, Meeting is only the beginning of separation, is Hearn's sentence of 1899 to the word, and its only is Hearn's: word for word the Japanese says to meet is the beginning of parting, and has no only. What a rendering must keep is the plain equation of 1888, meeting and parting as one thing, and the tone, which is consolation rather than warning.

A reading

The proverb's Japanese life began not in the sutra but in bed, in poems about the dawn parting after one night; in the Muromachi tales Narihira says it to Komachi's ghost, and on the stage it is a blind prince's line as he gives up his music. So the modern reading, that meetings are bittersweet rather than sad because they end and are therefore precious, is a good one; the older witnesses say do not grieve, this is the rule, which is what the sutra says too. The older feeling stands beside the newer one, not against it.

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Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Japanese Scroll of Meeting is only the beginning of separation (au wa wakare no hajime) in a block font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
逢うは別れの始めVB6CBlock
Japanese Scroll of Meeting is only the beginning of separation (au wa wakare no hajime) in a cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
逢うは別れの始めVC4BCursive
Japanese Scroll of Meeting is only the beginning of separation (au wa wakare no hajime) in a cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
逢うは別れの始めVC4CCursive
Japanese Scroll of Meeting is only the beginning of separation (au wa wakare no hajime) in a semi-cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
逢うは別れの始めVS6CSemi-Cursive

References

  1. 藤井乙男『諺語大辞典』, 有朋堂, 1910, 【逢フハ別レノハジメ】【逢フハ別レノモトヰ】【會者定離】, pp. 35 and 1104. National Diet Library pid 862766, scan 33. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/862766/1/33
  2. James Curtis Hepburn, A Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary, fourth edition, Z. P. Maruya, Tokyo, 1888, s.v. AU. Internet Archive japaneseenglishe00hepbuoft. https://archive.org/details/japaneseenglishe00hepbuoft
  3. J. C. Hepburn, 『和英語林集成』, 2nd ed., American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1872. National Diet Library pid 993689, scan 20. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/993689/1/20
  4. 井上十吉『英語学講義録』, 英語学攻修会, 1897–1898 (the set's span; this volume carries no colophon), 第2学年〔1〕, 和文英訳, pp. 56–57. National Diet Library pid 869647, scan 31. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/869647/1/31
  5. Lafcadio Hearn, In Ghostly Japan, Little, Brown, Boston, copyright 1899; read in the printing of 1900 (title page M D CCCC, copyright page 1899), 'Japanese Buddhist Proverbs', no. 3 and its note, p. 168, at the page image (n191); the printing of 1911 (Internet Archive cu31924014202687, p. 168 at n189) reads the same. https://archive.org/details/inghostlyjapan00hear
  6. 竹原常太『スタンダード和英大辞典』, first published 1924; the copy read is the thirty-fifth printing of 1928, of the revised and enlarged edition of 1926, by its colophon, esha-jōri (會者定離). National Diet Library pid 1126806, scan 87 (p. 159). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1126806/1/87 · 竹原常太『スタンダード和英辭典』, the abridged edition, first published 1941; the copy read is the twenty-first printing of 1946, by its colophon, eshajōri (會者定離). National Diet Library pid 1126792, scan 73. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1126792/1/73
  7. Speake, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, Oxford University Press, 2015, s.v. The best of friends must part.
  8. 『遺教經』(佛垂般涅槃略說教誡經), traditionally credited to Kumārajīva (精選版 日本国語大辞典 遺教経: 鳩摩羅什訳と伝える), 401–413 (Kumārajīva translated at Chang'an from 401 and died in 413: 「鳩摩羅什」, デジタル大辞泉 and 日本大百科全書 (ニッポニカ), at kotobank), at CBETA (T12n0389, p. 1112b07–13). https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T0389&juan=1
  9. 『大般涅槃經』北本, 卷二, 壽命品, at CBETA (T12n0374, p. 373a26–b01). https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T0374&juan=2
  10. 「元稹」, Chinese Wikipedia: 元和五年（810年）… 貶為江陵府士曹參軍. https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/元稹
  11. Bai Juyi 白居易, 和夢遊春詩一百韻, in 白氏長慶集 卷十四, at Chinese Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/和夢遊春詩一百韻
  12. 「あう【会】は別れ」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/会は別れ-2000309
  13. 「続拾遺和歌集」, デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank: 弘安元年（1278）成立. https://kotobank.jp/word/続拾遺和歌集-534172
  14. 『国歌大観』歌集部, 1901–1903 (the copy's colophons: 歌集部 第一册 1901, 第二册 1902, the whole work 1903), 続拾遺和歌集 巻第十三 恋歌三, no. 927, p. 322. National Diet Library pid 873348, scan 166. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/873348/1/166
  15. 「九条教実」, 日本人名大辞典+Plus, at kotobank: 左大臣, 関白をへて貞永元年四条天皇の摂政となり, 洞院摂政とよばれる. https://kotobank.jp/word/九条教実-1071576
  16. 『続国歌大観』歌集部 第1冊, 1910–1911 (the set's span; this copy carries no colophon), 拾遺愚草 上, 關白左大臣家百首 貞永元年四月 (nos. 9948 on), 後朝戀, no. 10012, p. 132. National Diet Library pid 873675, scan 68. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/873675/1/68
  17. 「壬二集」, デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank: 寛元三年（一二四五）までに九条基家が編んだ. https://kotobank.jp/word/壬二集-139259
  18. 『続国歌大観』歌集部 第1冊, 1910–1911 (the set's span; this copy carries no colophon), 壬二集 下, 恋部, no. 14562, p. 194. National Diet Library pid 873675, scan 99. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/873675/1/99
  19. 日本俗諺集, in 『輪池叢書』第30冊, undated Edo manuscript; the record's author field 山口安固 (春水, 1692–1771), for the volume; stamp 不忍文庫; 輪池 and 不忍文庫 as Yashiro's, 「屋代弘賢」 at kotobank. National Diet Library pid 2533175, scans 58–59. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2533175/1/58
  20. 「会者定離」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/会者定離
  21. 『平家物語 頭註』下巻, 宝文館, 1910 (明治43年1月), 維盛入水の事, National Diet Library pid 877639, scans 71–72. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/877639/1/72
  22. 「宝物集」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 日本大百科全書 (ニッポニカ), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/宝物集
  23. 『宝物集』3巻, 正保5 (1648), National Diet Library pid 2599657, scan 11. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2599657/1/11
  24. 謡曲評釈, 1908, 楊貴妃. National Diet Library pid 876568, scan 70. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/876568/1/70
  25. 『きのふはけふの物語』上, 寛永 (1624–44), National Diet Library pid 2533093, scan 38. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2533093/1/38
  26. 九思軒鱗長『和国小性形気』, 享保5 (1720), 巻四, National Diet Library pid 11223238, scan 14. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/11223238/1/14
  27. 「熊野の本地」, 日本大百科全書 (ニッポニカ) and 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/熊野の本地
  28. 『くまのゝほんち』上, 〔寛永末－正保頃〕刊, National Diet Library pid 1286842, scan 32. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1286842/1/32
  29. 『御すいでん』(熊野の御本地のさうし), 3 vols., 1668 (寛文8), National Diet Library pid 2566636, scan 9. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2566636/1/9
  30. 「小町草紙」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/小町草紙
  31. 「御伽草子」, デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank: 享保（1716～1736）のころ、大坂の渋川清右衛門. https://kotobank.jp/word/御伽草子
  32. 今泉定介・畠山健 校定『御伽草子』前, 吉川半七, 1891, 小町草紙. National Diet Library pid 992891, scan 50. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992891/1/50
  33. 「蝉丸」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/蝉丸
  34. 木谷蓬吟編『大近松全集』第5巻, 1922 (colophon: 大正十一年八月三十一日發行), 蝉丸, pp. 128–129. National Diet Library pid 969896, scan 75. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/969896/1/75
  35. 三千世界色修行, 1772, in 『徳川文芸類聚』, 1914. National Diet Library pid 945808, scan 140. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/945808/1/140
  36. 「和訓栞」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 日本大百科全書 (ニッポニカ), at kotobank: 安永6～明治20年（1777～1887）刊. https://kotobank.jp/word/和訓栞-153999
  37. 谷川士清『倭訓栞』前編 巻之二, woodblock print, dated 文政13 (1830) by the National Diet Library, entry 會ハ別れの始. National Diet Library pid 2562783, scan 34. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2562783/1/34
  38. CBETA full-text search, 會者定離, zero results across every text CBETA serves, no canon filter; the control 會必有離, thirty-four texts. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/search?q=會者定離
  39. 丁福保『佛學大辭典』, 會者定離, at Chinese Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/佛學大辭典/會者定離
  40. 『妙法蓮華經』譬喩品, at CBETA (T09n0262, p. 13a22). https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T0262&juan=2
  41. 「逢うは別れの始め」・「会うは別れの始め」, デジタル大辞泉・ことわざを知る辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/逢うは別れの始め (デジタル大辞泉); https://kotobank.jp/word/会うは別れの始め (ことわざを知る辞典)
  42. Wallace Rice and Frances Rice, The Wealth of Friendship, Brewer, Barse, Chicago, 1909, p. 183. https://archive.org/details/wealthoffriendsh00rice
  43. The Japan Magazine, vol. 1, April 1910, 'Proverbs from the Japanese', p. 184. Internet Archive jm-1910-v1-vol.-1. https://archive.org/details/jm-1910-v1-vol.-1
  44. Lord Redesdale, Further Memories, Hutchinson, London, 1917, p. 45. https://archive.org/details/furthermemories00redeiala
  45. Selwyn Gurney Champion, Racial Proverbs, Macmillan, New York, 1938. Internet Archive racialproverbs0000unse, a lending copy. https://archive.org/details/racialproverbs0000unse
  46. 斎藤秀三郎, Saito's Idiomological English-Japanese Dictionary (熟語本位英和中辞典), S.E.G. Publishing Department, 1915, s.v. meet, p. 787 (HathiTrust hvd.32044086539269, seq 805; read in the page text).
  47. Arthur Rose-Innes, Conversational Japanese for Beginners, 1920, s.v. au. https://archive.org/details/conversationalja01roseiala
  48. F. Brinkley, An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary, Sanseidō, Tokyo, 1896, s.v. hitsumetsu. Internet Archive cu31924082117288. https://archive.org/details/cu31924082117288
  49. R. H. Blyth, Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics, Hokuseido Press, 1942.
  50. R. H. Blyth, Haiku, volume two, Spring, Hokuseido Press, 1950 (First Printing, 1950), p. 355, under Issa's 夕ざくら; the same page in the 1981 printing.
  51. R. H. Blyth, Haiku, volume three, Summer–Autumn, Hokuseido Press, 1952, p. 267, under Shiki's 夏木立入りし人の跡もなし (the shelf copy; its printing is not shown in the scan).
  52. Okada, Japanese Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, Japan Travel Bureau, 1958, s.v. Au wa wakare no hajimari.
  53. Brower, Japanese Court Poetry, Stanford University Press, 1961, in the discussion of Teika's late style, the poem Hajime yori.
  54. Daniel Crump Buchanan, Japanese Proverbs and Sayings, University of Oklahoma Press, 1965, pp. 164, 170, 171.
  55. Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, 4th ed., Kenkyusha, 1974, s.v. あう, p. 59; 会者定離, p. 242; 離合集散, p. 1372.
  56. Kenkyusha's New Collegiate Japanese-English Dictionary, 3rd ed., Kenkyusha, 1983, s.v. わかれ.
  57. Guy Zona, Even Withered Trees Give Prosperity to the Mountain: And Other Proverbs of Japan, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1996, p. 77.
  58. Wilson, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs, 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 1970, s.v. Friends (The best of friends) must part: Chaucer c. 1380, Chapman c. 1602, Scott 1821.
  59. JMdict, 「逢うは別れの始め」, at gokanji. https://new.gokanji.com/word/逢うは別れの始め

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Fable 5.1, Sonnet 5 and Opus 5.5, Takase Studios, LLC)

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

Checked · Takase Studios (an address check by script), 2026-11-01, citations — 65 claims tested at their addresses: 28 resolved, 5 differed and were judged at the page (the 1910 dictionary's citation for the variant no longer dated, Saitō's printed page, Blyth's sentence found in the 1950 printing, the Kenkyusha lines moved to the entry that carries them, Wilson's dates given apart from Speake's), one was on the next leaf (Ietaka's poem in the Edo manuscript, now cited at both), 31 could not be opened by the check (web pages, books served only in Japan, lending copies) and none was absent · two fresh-context readers per round (Claude), 2026-11-01, every claim in the page's summary block traced to its source, claim by claim: round 1 FAIL, both (the Japanese dictionary does not cite the Lotus Sutra for the term); round 2 PASS, both; corrections made · Grok 4.6 (xAI), 2026-09-05, citations · GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI), 2026-09-05, citations

Research depth: step 3 of our 10-step ladder, foundation complete · November 2026

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 逢うは別れの始め (au wa wakare no hajime)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/au-wa-wakare-no-hajime.