一寸の虫にも五分の魂 issun no mushi ni mo gobu no tamashii Even the Smallest Has Its Pride
一寸の虫にも五分の魂 (issun no mushi ni mo gobu no tamashii) is traced from a Kamakura warning against killing to a karate teacher's warning to the strong.
Abstract
一寸の虫にも五分の魂, issun no mushi ni mo gobu no tamashii, even an insect one inch long has a soul of half an inch, is the Japanese proverb that however small or weak a creature or a person is, it has a mind and a pride of its own and is not to be made light of [1]. Its oldest witness read for this history is a warrior's letter of precepts of the mid-thirteenth century, attributed to Hōjō Shigetoki 北条重時, which already calls it a saying and gives it as a reason not to kill: even the lowliest insect loves its life as we love ours [2]. Across the seven centuries of witnesses read here the sense turns: the Edo proverb books list it, Chikamatsu's stage gives it to the small who stand up to the great, an 1814 tract against infanticide turns it on the newborn, Issa's mantis rears up with it, the Meiji press made it the small one's right to a view, and the karate teacher Funakoshi Gichin turned it into a warning to the strong. In English it has been rendered word for word since 1881, read as mercy for the smallest life by Lafcadio Hearn in 1899, and paired in the proverb books with the worm that turns.
Overview
The sense. The Japanese dictionaries give the proverb today as どんなに小さく弱い者でも、それ相当の思慮や意地を持っているものだ。小さくても、ばかにできないたとえ, however small and weak, one has a mind and a pride of one's own; a figure for the small that is not to be made light of (精選版 日本国語大辞典), or that 意地や考え, pride and thoughts, belong to the smallest (デジタル大辞泉) [1]. A proverb dictionary on the same page gives two senses in order: first that every living thing, however small, has its life and is not to be treated carelessly; then the pride that is not to be slighted [1]. The second is the proverb's sense now; the first is its oldest.
The words. 一寸, issun, is one sun, the old Japanese inch, a little over three centimeters; 五分, gobu, is five bu, half a sun. 虫, mushi, is an insect, a worm, any small crawling thing. 魂, tamashii, is the soul or spirit. Word for word, an insect of one inch has a soul of half an inch: the soul is half the body, which is the joke and the point at once, as the proverb dictionary says, a soul large out of all proportion to its owner [1]. The particle varies across the witnesses read for this history, には, に and にも, and the modern にも, even, is not the oldest (Notes).
The text in English. The oldest English read for this history is in a letter from Tokyo printed in Zion's Herald in January 1881, Even an inch-long worm has a half-inch soul [3]; William Gray Dixon's The Land of the Morning (1882) gives An insect an inch long has half an inch of soul in a bare list [4]. Lafcadio Hearn put it among his Japanese Buddhist Proverbs (1899) and read it as any life, however small or mean, is entitled to mercy [5]. The proverb books in English pair it with Even a worm will turn or Tread on a worm and it will turn, the line Heywood printed in 1546 [6][7][8]. The work order's English, Even a one-inch insect has a half-inch soul, is David Galef's of 1987 word for word [9].
The historical record
The 極楽寺殿御消息, mid-thirteenth century. The 極楽寺殿御消息 is a house code in kana for a warrior's conduct, of 98 articles in the dictionary's count, attributed to the Kamakura warrior Hōjō Shigetoki 北条重時 (1198–1261) and dated by the same dictionary to around 1256–1261 [10]. A 1910 printing in a series of Japanese educational texts, read at the page image, has the proverb in the article the 精選版 日本国語大辞典 numbers forty-five (the page marks each article only with 一) [1][2]:
一つみをつくり給ふまじき事、たとへにも、一寸のむしには五分のたましゐとて、あやしの虫けらも、いのちをばおしむ事、我にたがふべからず、たとひ貴命などにて、鵜鷹のかりすなどりをするとも、返々惡業をはなれ、佛のにくまれをかふむり候はぬやうに心え給ふべし
Do not commit sin. As the saying goes, an insect one inch long has a soul of five bu: even the lowliest bug values its life no differently from us. Even if a lord's command has you hunting with cormorants and hawks, or fishing, keep well away from evil deeds, and take care not to earn the Buddha's displeasure. Three things follow from the page. たとへにも, as the saying goes: the proverb is a saying already when the letter uses it, so the letter is its oldest witness read here, not its coinage. The sense is the insect's life, in a Buddhist precept against needless killing, set beside the cormorant fishing and falconry a warrior's lord may order. And the form is 一寸のむしには, with には. Uchida Mioko 内田澪子 has published two further manuscripts of the letter. In the copy she introduced in 2007, made in 1550, the article (there the forty-seventh) reads 一寸の虫にも五分のたましゐとて、いやしき虫けらも命をおしむ事, with にも and いやしき for あやしの [11]; in the copy she published in 2024, held by the National Museum of Japanese History under the title 西明寺殿仮名御消息, the article (the forty-second) reads 一寸の虫には五ふんのたましいとて、虫けらにも命をおしむ事 [12]. The 鎌倉遺文 prints the letter with むしにハ [13], and the 日本思想大系 edition, whose base text is the 尊経閣文庫 copy, with 虫には [14][12]. Uchida proposes that the letter took shape through Shigetoki's circle or later hands, Hōjō Tokiyori 北条時頼 among them, rather than as Shigetoki's own writing [11], and of the 2024 copy, titled 西明寺殿仮名御消息, she notes that its heading confuses Shigetoki with Tokiyori, and reads the title as one sign that the letter was received not necessarily as Shigetoki's own house code [12].
1638 and 1656, the proverb books. 『毛吹草』, compiled by Matsue Shigeyori 松江重頼 with a preface of 1638, lists the proverb among its sayings, in a 1662 printing read at the leaf: 一すんのむしに五分の魂, with the ruby たましゐ beside 魂 (its first two kana faint), between ぬす人におひをうつ and さんせうハ小粒なれとも から…, the sanshō pepper is small, but hot [15]. 『世話尽』 (1656) lists it in its second book, read at the leaf, as 一寸乃虫に五分乃魂, again with に and the ruby たましゐ; the book orders its entries by their first character, so its neighbors say nothing of the sense [16]. Two later collections, the 諺苑 (1797) and the 俚言集覧, write it 一寸の虫に五分の神, with 神 for the soul (Notes).
1657, a 仮名草子. 『他我身の上』, a book of six volumes by Yamaoka Genrin 山岡元隣 with a colophon of 1657, opens one chapter with the proverb as a thing long said, はじめのそゝめき後のどやめき、一寸の蟲に五分のたましひといへる事いひならはせり, a fine start and an ill ending; people have long said that an insect of one inch has a soul of five bu, and turns it on a daughter married against her heart [17].
1836, the tales of the monk Ikkyū. 『一休諸国物語図絵』, a collection of tales about the Zen monk Ikkyū compiled by Hirata Shisui 平田止水, which the national catalog of premodern Japanese books dates to 1836 and which was reprinted often in the Meiji years, carries the 消息's sense almost in its words, read here in an 1894 printing: 一寸の虫に五分のたましいと申事の候、鵜鷹の逍遙を好むものは、死して鉄鋸地獄の中に落る, there is the saying that an insect of one inch has a soul of five bu; one who delights in cormorant fishing and falconry falls at death into the hell of iron saws, and the passage goes on to the hells for those who kill fowl and boil eggs, all the karma of taking life [18][19]. The same catalog lists a 仮名草子 of the 寛文 years (1661–1673) under the title 『一休諸国物語』; whether the passage stands in it is not read for this history [19].
Before 1715, Chikamatsu's stage. The standard proverb dictionary of 1910, Fujii Otoo 藤井乙男's 『諺語大辞典』, gives as its first quotation a line from Chikamatsu Monzaemon 近松門左衛門's play 『天智天皇』: 靑蠅は小さけれども、毒あつて腹中に入つて、五尺の人の命をとる、一寸の蟲にも五分の魂, the blue fly is small, but it has poison, and when it enters the belly it takes the life of a five-foot man [20]. In the play, read in an 1896 printing, the line is a retort: Kanaoka, whom a prince has mocked as no more than an insect, answers him with it, and in that printing the proverb reads 一寸の虫に五ぶのたましひ, with に [21]. In another of Chikamatsu's plays, 『一心五戒魂』, the warrior Morito answers two monks who have come to avenge their master with 誠に一寸の虫に五分の魂と聞く。しほらしいうんざい共, true, they say an insect of one inch has a soul of five bu; what charming rabble, and orders them cut down [21]. The 1896 collection that prints both gathers, as its own heading says, plays written before the eighth month of 1715. On Chikamatsu's stage the proverb belongs to the small who stand up to the great, and to the great who sneer at them.
1718, a book of comic tales. 『やふにまくは』, a 咄本, a book of comic tales, in five volumes printed in 1718 [19], uses it in a passage on hiring and service: 一寸の虫にも五分の魂有。知分の器量。見届て目明てつかへは漸心の用にたつ, even an insect of one inch has a soul of five bu, and the capacity of its measure; employ a man with open eyes, having seen it, and he will at last be of use [22]. It is read in the Library's text layer, and it is the oldest printed にも read for this history.
1793 and 1830, the kibyōshi. The illustrated comic books of the late Edo use it literally, of insects and tiny people. Santō Kyōden 山東京伝 in 1793: 一寸のむしに五分のたましゐとは此ことなり, this is what is meant by an insect of one inch having a soul of five bu [23]; Jippensha Ikku 十返舎一九, in a book of 1830 whose title promises a tour of the island of little people: 一寸の虫にも五分の魂。山椒は小粒 [24]. These are read in the Library's snippet view.
1814, a tract against infanticide. 『鵙の囀り』, a manuscript tract signed in 1814 by 平之助, an officer of the Sendai domain charged with child-rearing in Tamatsukuri, argues against 間引き, the killing of newborns, and bends the proverb to the infant: 一寸の生子、五分のたましゐとて、虫けらさへむさと殺すへからす、況や人に於をや, as they say, an inch-long newborn has a soul of five bu; one must not kill even an insect carelessly, still less a human being [25]. It is the precept of the 消息, carried to the child. The tract is read as Takahashi Bonsen 高橋梵仙 printed it in 1955, in snippet view.
1819, Issa's mantis. Issa 一茶's verse 蟷螂や五分の魂これ見よと, the mantis: "look, here is my half-inch soul!", stands under the heading 蟷螂 in a 1908 collection of his verse [26]; Handa Ryōhei 半田良平's 1925 edition, arranged by season and year, dates it 文政二, 1819 [27], and Ogiwara Seisensui 荻原井泉水's of 1927 gives the same year [28]. The mantis is the insect that rears up against anything, and the verse gives the soul to its defiance. Where the editors took the year from is not read.
The Meiji years, a stock saying. In the satirical weekly 『團團珍聞』 in 1881 the proverb is the small one's right to a view: 夫レ一寸ノ虫ニモ五分ノ魂十人寄ハ十腹トヤラ人ニハ夫々意見持論ノアルモノナリ, an insect of one inch has a soul of five bu, and ten men have ten minds: each has his own opinion [29]; in 1883 the same paper fathers it on the Buddhist canon in jest, 大盤若經ニ曰ク一寸ノ蟲ニモ五分ノ魂, the Great Prajñāpāramitā Sutra says …, beside a 左傳 for another proverb [30] (Notes). A book of 1891 explaining proverbs glosses it 卑賤の者とても輕侮すること勿れ, do not despise even the lowly [31]; a self-help book of 1892 makes it a call to stand on one's own, 人として自主獨行の魂無き者は豈蠕虫にだも若かざる者にあらず耶, is not a man without the spirit of standing on his own less than a worm? [32]; and Tsubouchi Shōyō 坪内逍遥 in 1896 names it with 鬼の目に涙 and 武士は喰はねど高楊枝 among the proverbs a hack writer chants every morning [33]. The English-Japanese lexicons of 1888 set it beside the Latin Habet et musca splenem, even a fly has its spleen [34], an adage of Erasmus, who sets beside it There is gall even in an ant [35].
1897 and 1910, the dictionaries. P. Ehmann's collection of Japanese proverbs in German (1897) gives Issun no mushi mo gobu no tamashii, Selbst ein zollanges Insekt hat eine Seele von einem halben Zoll, and explains: Man soll auch den Niedrigsten nicht verachten, ihn nicht reizen etc, denn jeder vermag sich zu rächen, one should not despise even the lowest, nor provoke him, for anyone can take revenge [36]. Fujii's 『諺語大辞典』 (1910), read at the page image, quotes Chikamatsu and a second play, 人でも蟲でも心がなくば論に及ばず、一寸の蟲にも五分の魂, man or insect, if it had no heart there would be nothing to argue; an insect of one inch has a soul of five bu, and gives parallels in English from Latin, German, Italian and Portuguese, the fly's anger and the ant's wrath among them [20]. It does not cite the 消息 or the 毛吹草 under the headword.
1922 to 1956, Funakoshi's warning to the strong. Funakoshi Gichin 船越義珍 (writing as 富名腰 in his books of 1922 and 1925) puts the proverb in his teaching on conduct in 『琉球拳法唐手』 (1922), the book he recalls as his first attempt to set karate down in writing (Funakoshi in English): 天下に敵なしと慢心すると退歩だ。一寸の蟲にも五分の魂のある世の中進めば進む程口を愼まな…, to grow proud and think oneself without an equal under heaven is to fall back; in a world where an insect of one inch has a soul of five bu, the further one advances the more one must guard one's tongue [37]. The sentence returns in 1925 [38], in 『空手道教範』 (1935, read in the 1958 edition), 一寸の虫にも五分の魂のある世の中、進めば進む程、口舌を謹まないと四方の尊敬を失…, … one loses the respect of all sides [39], and in 1956, when he quotes it from his own book in 『空手道一路』 [40]. Funakoshi's use is the proverb's turn upon the strong: the weakest opponent has his pride, and the skilled man who forgets it makes enemies. These are read in the Library's snippet view.
Today. The two general dictionaries on kotobank give only the pride sense, and the proverb dictionary gives as its example Mushanokōji Saneatsu 武者小路実篤's 『真理先生』 (1949–50), 僕だって一寸の虫に五分の魂はある, even I have my half-inch soul [1].
一寸の虫にも五分の魂 in English
1881, Zion's Herald. A letter from Tokyo, dated November and printed on 20 January 1881, in which a woman living in Japan describes her Japanese teacher, uses it of herself: On the principle, perhaps, of the Japanese proverb which declares that "Even an inch-long worm has a half-inch soul," the "foreign woman" rejoices over the quaint petitions, according to her small ability to comprehend Japanese syntax [3]. It is the oldest English read for this history.
1882, Dixon. William Gray Dixon, who had been a professor at the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo and left Japan in January 1880, gives it in a list of proverbs without comment: An insect an inch long has half an inch of soul [4].
1899 and 1902, Hearn. Lafcadio Hearn, in In Ghostly Japan, makes it no. 32 of his Japanese Buddhist Proverbs: Issun no mushi ni mo, gobu no tamashii. Even a worm an inch long has a soul half-an-inch long, with the note: Literally, "has a soul of five bu," — five bu being equal to half of the Japanese inch. Buddhism forbids all taking of life, and classes as things (Ujo) all forms having sentiency. The proverb, however, — as the use of the word "soul" (tamashii) implies, — reflects popular belief rather than Buddhist philosophy. It signifies that any life, however small or mean, is entitled to mercy [5]. In Kottō (1902) he sets the proverb as the epigraph to Kusa-Hibari, his essay on a caged cricket the size of a mosquito, which dies of neglect [41]. Hearn's is the 消息's sense, in English.
1953, an oral witness. A list of twenty proverbs in the Journal of American Folklore, contributed from Wailuku, Maui, and taken down from the contributor's mother, who had them from her grandmother and her nursemaid as a child in Hiroshima, gives "Even a worm an inch long has a soul a half inch long." Therefore, no matter how small a creature don't mistreat it. It also has a soul [42].
1958 to 2012, the proverb books. Rokuo Okada (1958): Even an inch-long worm has a half-inch soul. The humblest will resent extreme ill-treatment. "Even a worm will turn." "A fly hath a spleen." [6]. R. H. Blyth (1959): A worm one inch long has half an inch of soul. This is not so much an expression of animism as of a respect for the thing-ness of things, their existence-value [43]. Daniel Crump Buchanan (1965): Even a one-inch insect has a five-tenths-of-an-inch soul. Therefore, one should treat fairly even the humblest person. English parallel: Tread on a worm and it will turn [7]. David Galef (1987): Even a one-inch insect has a half-inch soul, with the parallel Everything has its place [9]; and in 2012: This Buddhist-inflected proverb notes the sacredness of all living creatures, with the understood message that they deserve our respect. The proverb is also quoted as a warning against reprisal, however: "Even a worm will turn" [44]. The English worm will turn is Heywood's of 1546, Treade a worme on the tayle and it must turne agayne, as Tilley records it [8].
Funakoshi in English. In his introduction to the Kyōhan, as Tsutomu Ohshima translates it (1973), Funakoshi recalls how, having many times considered noting down some points about karate, he wrote the book that appeared in November of 1922, with the title Ryukyu Kempo: Karate, and calls it the first published work on the subject of karate; the same translation renders the sentence: It is said that even a worm that is an inch long has a soul half an inch long thus as one continues to gain skill in karate, one must become more careful with one's speech [45]; John Teramoto's of Karate-jutsu (2001): In a world where even an inch-long worm has a heart and soul a half-inch long, the man who advances his position without becoming more prudent in his speech will create innumerable enemies [46].
A reading
The proverb is a piece of arithmetic, and the arithmetic is the argument: a soul half the size of its body is a soul too big for its owner, and that is why it cannot be stepped on without consequence. The witnesses read for this history disagree about what the consequence is. In the 消息 it falls on the one who kills, in the Buddha's displeasure, and the insect's soul is its love of its own life, which is ours too; the 1836 Ikkyū tales and the 1814 tract carry that sense on, the tract as far as the newborn, and Hearn carries it into English as mercy. On Chikamatsu's stage, in Issa's mantis and in the Meiji newspapers the consequence falls on the strong, because the small will stand up, speak its mind or take revenge; this is the sense the dictionaries now give, and the one English hears in the worm will turn. I read the two as one proverb seen from either side. The thirteenth-century letter is addressed to the strong man who might kill, and tells him the small life is as dear to its owner as his own; the Edo stage speaks from the small one's side and says the same soul will not be trampled. Funakoshi stands where the letter stood, speaking to the strong, but with the stage's lesson: the reason to guard one's tongue is that the weakest opponent has his pride. A rendering that keeps only the pride, or only the sacredness, keeps half. The literal English, even an inch-long insect has a half-inch soul, keeps both, because it keeps the arithmetic.
Notes
The particle. には stands in the 1910 printing of the 消息, in the 栄秀本 Uchida published in 2024, in the 鎌倉遺文 and in the 日本思想大系 text [2][12][13][14]; にも in the manuscript of 1550 [11]; に in the 1638 and 1656 proverb books, the 1657 仮名草子, the 1836 Ikkyū tales and the 1896 printing of 天智天皇 [15][16][17][18][21]; にも in the 1718 book, Fujii's headword, the Meiji newspaper uses quoted here and Funakoshi [22][20][29][30][37]; and も alone, 虫も, in Ehmann [36]. Fujii's quotation of 天智天皇 has にも where the 1896 printing of the play has に [20][21]. The article's number differs: forty-five in the 日本国語大辞典's citation, forty-seven and forty-two in Uchida's two copies; Uchida counts 99 articles in the 尊経閣文庫 copy, 107 in the 与四郎本 and 95 in the 栄秀本 [12]. Which copy the 1910 printing followed is not read.
The 諺苑 of 1797 and the 俚言集覧 write the proverb 一寸の虫に五分の神, citing the 世話尽 and the 毛吹草 as their sources; both are read in the Library's snippet view and are not given a reference here.
The 1883 attribution to the 大般若經 is the satirical paper's joke: a full-text search of the Chinese Buddhist canon in CBETA for 五分魂, 一寸蟲 and 寸蟲 returns nothing.
The 1910 dictionary's 天智天皇 line has a different insect, the blue fly, and turns the proverb to poison: a small thing can kill. Its third quotation, from a Korean collection, is printed with a broken last character and is not read here.
Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase
Sources not seen
『日本思想大系 21 中世政治社会思想 上』 (岩波書店, 1972), National Diet Library, https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/12283334. The critical text of the 極楽寺殿御消息 on the 尊経閣文庫 copy, which the Library serves in full only inside Japan; its apparatus would show how the copies differ at this article.
A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.
References
- 一寸の虫にも五分の魂, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and ことわざを知る辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%B8%80%E5%AF%B8%E3%81%AE%E8%99%AB%E3%81%AB%E3%82%82%E4%BA%94%E5%88%86%E3%81%AE%E9%AD%82-434280
- 『日本教育文庫 家訓篇』, 同文館, 1910, scan 62 (極楽寺殿御消息; the work headed at scan 56). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1053176/1/62
- Zion's Herald 58 (3), 20 January 1881, a letter from Tokyo dated November. https://archive.org/details/sim_zions-herald_1881-01-20_58_3
- William Gray Dixon, The Land of the Morning: An Account of Japan and Its People, James Gemmell, 1882, p. 500. https://archive.org/details/cu31924023514312
- Lafcadio Hearn, In Ghostly Japan, Little, Brown, 1899, "Japanese Buddhist Proverbs", no. 32 and its note, pp. 175–176. https://archive.org/details/cu31924014202687
- Rokuo Okada, Japanese Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, Japan Travel Bureau, 1958, no. 69.
- Daniel Crump Buchanan, Japanese Proverbs and Sayings, University of Oklahoma Press, 1965.
- Morris Palmer Tilley, A Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, University of Michigan Press, 1950, F393 and W909.
- David Galef, "Even Monkeys Fall from Trees" and Other Japanese Proverbs, Tuttle, 1987, no. 25.
- 極楽寺殿御消息, ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 小項目事典 and 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%A5%B5%E6%A5%BD%E5%AF%BA%E6%AE%BF%E5%BE%A1%E6%B6%88%E6%81%AF-64329
- Uchida Mioko 内田澪子, 「『極楽寺殿御消息』再考 — 田中穣氏旧蔵典籍古文書所収本の紹介から・附翻刻」, 国立歴史民俗博物館研究報告 136, 2007, p. 1 (abstract) and p. 25. https://rekihaku.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/1496
- Uchida Mioko 内田澪子, 「『極楽寺殿御消息』異本紹介と翻刻 — 国立歴史民俗博物館蔵「栄秀」本 —」, 医療創生大学研究紀要 4, 2024, pp. 13 and 26. https://isu.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/2000014
- 『鎌倉遺文』 古文書編 12, 1979, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/12230587
- 『日本思想大系 21 中世政治社会思想 上』, 1972, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/12283334
- 『毛吹草』, 1662 printing (東北大学附属図書館 狩野文庫), canvas 67, and the work record (寛永一五序, 1638), 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100306717/67 · https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/work/169937
- 皆虚 編, 『世話尽』 巻二, 1656, scan 3. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2554768/1/3
- 『近代日本文学大系』 1 仮名草子集, 1928 (他我身の上 and its 解題), snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1223734
- 平田止水 編, 『一休諸国物語図会』, 1894 printing, scan 37 (text layer). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/879891/1/37
- 国書データベース, National Institute of Japanese Literature, work records for 一休諸国物語, 一休諸国物語図絵 and やふにまくは. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/work/12044 · https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/work/12055 · https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/work/1772992
- 藤井乙男, 『諺語大辞典』, 有朋堂, 1910, scans 60–61, pp. 89–90. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/862766/1/60
- 『近松時代浄瑠璃』 巻1, 1896, scans 98 (天智天皇) and 198 (一心五戒魂) (text layer). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/876715/1/198
- 『やふにまくは』 巻二, 1718, scan 18 (text layer). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2568480/1/18
- 山東京伝, 『皐下旬虫干曽我』, 1793, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/9892744
- 十返舎一九, 『新製小人島廻』, 1830, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/10301266
- 高橋梵仙, 『日本人口史之研究』 2, 1955 (『鵙の囀り』, printed whole), snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/3043962
- 『一茶一代全集』, 1908, scan 55, p. 90. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/874846/1/55
- 半田良平 編, 『一茶俳句集 季題別年代考』, 紅玉堂書店, 1925, scan 33, p. 51. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/917542/1/33
- 荻原井泉水 編, 『一茶文庫』, 1927, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1186618
- 『團團珍聞』, 19 November 1881, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/11210192
- 『團團珍聞』, 16 May 1883, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/11210280
- 天野御民, 『国民の品位:一名・諺の一口話』, 1891, scan 8 (text layer). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/755479/1/8
- 鈴木力, 『丈夫の本領:一名・東西立志編』, 1892, scan 10 (text layer). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/758326/1/10
- 坪内逍遥, 『文学その折々』, 1896, scan 283 (text layer). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/871764/1/283
- An English-Japanese Lexicon (rev. Sugiura, Matsushita and Manase), 1888, scan 556 (text layer). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1677027/1/556
- Erasmus, Adages, trans. Denis L. Drysdall, Collected Works of Erasmus 35, University of Toronto Press, 2005, III v 7.
- P. Ehmann, Die Sprichwörter und bildlichen Ausdrücke der japanischen Sprache, 1897, no. 982, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1675340
- 富名腰義珍, 『琉球拳法唐手』, 1922, reprint 1994, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/13176898
- 富名腰義珍, 『錬膽護身唐手術』, 1925, reprint 1996, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/13852185
- 船越義珍, 『空手道教範』, 1935, edition of 1958, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2486578
- 船越義珍, 『空手道一路』, 1956, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2481607
- Lafcadio Hearn, Kottō: Being Japanese Curios, with Sundry Cobwebs, 1902 (reprint of April 1903), "Kusa-Hibari", p. 235, epigraph. https://archive.org/details/kottobeingjapane00hearuoft
- "Twenty Japanese Proverbs", Journal of American Folklore 66 (259), January–March 1953, p. 18. https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-american-folklore_january-march-1953_66_259
- R. H. Blyth, Oriental Humour, Hokuseido, 1959.
- David Galef, Japanese Proverbs: Wit and Wisdom, Tuttle, 2012, no. 25.
- Gichin Funakoshi, Karate-dō Kyōhan: The Master Text, trans. Tsutomu Ohshima, Kodansha International, 1973.
- Gichin Funakoshi, Karate-jutsu: The Original Teachings of Master Funakoshi, trans. John Teramoto, Kodansha International, 2001.




