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地震雷火事親父 jishin kaminari kaji oyaji Earthquakes, Thunderbolts, Fires, Fathers

Japanese Scroll of Earthquakes, Thunderbolts, Fires, Fathers (jishin kaminari kaji oyaji) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
地震雷火事親父 Original Scroll by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Abstract

地震雷火事親父, earthquakes, thunder, fires, fathers, is popular speech of the Edo period: a list of the fearsome things of this world, roughly in order of fearsomeness, with the father brought in last as the joke. Before it come runs of sudden things with no father in them, in a farewell verse dated 1728 and in a samurai maxim told of a shogun by 1758, which no source ties to it; the four together are in print by 1814, a children's chant by 1831 in the ことわざを知る辞典's dating, and by 1855 a parody deity. No Japanese-language dictionary read here makes the father the most fearsome: the ことわざを知る辞典 brings him in last as the surprise, just as frightening all the same. Buchanan's ascending order of severity is an English reading, and JMdict's English gloss runs in the same direction, and the story that 親父 is a corruption of 大山嵐, a great wind, has no source this history finds earlier than a newspaper article of around autumn 2004. In English the list is in print from 1873, in Satow's exercises in the speech of Edo, as Earthquake, thunder, fire, sire, which keeps the rhyme; the four words the house title keeps, earthquakes, thunderbolts, fires, and fathers, are in print from 1897.

A reading

The father is the joke at the end, rhymed to 火事; on that the ことわざを知る辞典, which brings him in last as the surprise and calls him just as frightening, does not bear out Buchanan's reading. The four are popular speech of the Edo period, in print by 1814 and a children's chant by 1831; before them come runs of sudden things, in a samurai maxim and in a farewell verse dated 1728 whose author died two days after writing it; and the 1855 earthquake turned the proverb into a god. The typhoon story is a modern guess. My own reading: the order runs downward, from the earth itself to the man at home; the proverb is a joke that stayed true, and the 1728 verse is what it was before it was funny.

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Overview

The sense. The sense is a list, and the list has not changed since 1814 [1]. What has changed is the last word's weight. In the Edo books the father comes last, after three disasters; by 1900 a satirist can reverse the order for a laugh [2], and a statesman, in a talk a book of 1911 places in 1896, can say the four are no longer to be feared [3]; by 1933 a novelist adds war as a fifth [4]. The proverb dictionaries from 1891 to 1928 gloss it only as the fearsome things gathered [5]; today the ことわざを知る辞典 reads it as roughly in order of fearsomeness, with the father last as the surprise [4]. The reading that makes the father the most fearsome of the four is an English one, below.

The words. Four nouns with nothing between them. 地震, jishin, earthquake; 雷, kaminari, thunder, the clap and the bolt together, the discharge the デジタル大辞泉 describes as seen in lightning and heard in thunder, 電光が見え、雷鳴が聞こえる [4]; 火事, kaji, a fire that burns buildings; 親父, oyaji, one's father said familiarly, and by extension any older man in charge, the master of a house or a shop. The Edo prints write readings beside the characters, ぢしん and くわじ among them, the older spellings [1][6]. 藤井乙男's essay on proverbs of 1906 files the line among the sayings that drop every explaining word and pile up bare nouns, 名詞のみを疊み重ぬること, beside 韮にんにく握り屁 and 石部金吉金兜; the next kind he names, sayings set out in order of size, weight or strength, 大小輕重强弱等の次第によりて配列すること, is a list of its own that opens with 一富士二鷹三茄子, and of the two kinds together he writes that few examples are found abroad, この二種は外國に多く例を見ず [7]. The ことわざを知る辞典 hears why it sticks: 雷 and 火事 share an initial ka, 火事 and 親父 rhyme on -ji, and the father, who has nothing directly to do with disasters, 災害と直接関わりがなく, lands last as the surprise, just as frightening all the same [4]. Buchanan's reading, below, and JMdict's go further than any Japanese-language dictionary read here, none of which makes the father the peak [4].

The proverb in English. No English for the proverb is in the bilingual dictionaries before the war: Hepburn (1872) has nothing [8]; 斎藤 (1918) uses the words only, under fear [9]; 竹原's Standard dictionary has the words for earthquake and for thunder and no proverb in its unabridged printing of 1928, and the word for earthquake and no proverb in its abridgment of 1941 [10]. A Japanese-Chinese dictionary of 1925 glosses it in ordinals, 第一地動、第二雷神、第三失火、第四父親, which keeps the Japanese order [11]. The English proverb is older than any dictionary that carries it: it is in print from 1873, in Satow's exercises in the colloquial of Edo, as Earthquake, thunder, fire, sire [12], and from 1897, in the volumes Brinkley edited for an American publisher, as earthquakes, thunderbolts, fires, and fathers [13], whose four words a travel book of 1901 and a survey of 1913 repeat [14][15]. Okada in 1958 gives earthquake, thunder, fire, and father [16]; Buchanan in 1965 reads the order upward [17]; Galef in 1987 gives Earthquakes, thunderbolts, fires, fathers, Brinkley's words of 1897 [18]; Trimnell in 2004 says nothing about the order [19]. The proverb is not in Galef's second book (2000) or in Zona (1996) [20][21].

The historical record

1728. 如水's farewell verse, as recorded in the 江戸名所図会 (printed 1834 to 1836). On the third day of the new year of 享保13 如水, an old man of seventy-two, wrote 公事喧嘩地震雷火事晦日飢饉煩なき国へゆく, to a land without lawsuits, brawls, earthquakes, thunder, fires, month-ends, famine or sickness I go, and died two days later after shaving, bathing and praying; his gravestone stands at the Asakusa temple 金竜寺 [22]. Other Edo records carry the verse with small differences [23][24][25][26][27]; they give his name as 清水如水 and disagree on where he lived, 江戸横山町 in one and 浅草八軒町 in another, which also makes him eighty-nine [26][27]. It is the oldest dated run of 地震雷火事 this history knows: a list of the sudden and unavoidable things of this world, not yet a proverb, and with no father in it.

By 1758. 明君享保録, a chronicle of the shogun 吉宗's reign attributed to the storyteller 馬場文耕, who was arrested in 1758 and, by most of the dictionaries, executed in the last month of that Japanese year, 宝暦8, which fell early in 1759 (the デジタル大辞泉 says he died in prison). The shogun's word, as the chronicle reports it: 惣じて侍は常に三ツの心得ある事也。第一に気違ひ喧嘩、第二雷地震、第三火事と此三ツ不意に有べき事なれば, a samurai should always keep three things in mind: first a madman's brawl, second thunder and earthquake, third fire, for these three come without warning [28]. A copy at Hokkaido University whose preface is dated the early autumn of 1758, 宝暦八戊寅年初秋, has the same list in its chapter of 吉宗's sayings: 第一番ニ気違喧嘩第二番ニ雷地震第三番ニ火事也 [28]. The 徳川実紀, the shogunate's own chronicle, compiled from 1809, files the same saying among 吉宗's in the appendix to his reign: 武士に三箇の用意あり。第一には狂人喧嘩。第二には雷地震。第三には火災 [29]. Two undated Edo manuscripts, 守嚢 and 三木維清's notebook 故花菴備忘録, put it in the mouth of the second shogun 秀忠, with 地震雷鳴 for 雷地震; 守嚢's wording is close to 明君享保録's [30], and 故花菴備忘録 has 士には常々三の心得あるへし第一気違ひ喧嘩第二に地震雷鳴第三に火事 [31]; a boys' reader of 1908 retells it of 秀忠 [32]. The earliest known telling gives the maxim to 吉宗, with thunder before the earthquake.

1814. 春廿三夜待, a comic book by 岡山鳥 with pictures by 国貞. The four together, named in passing as a set. After printing one charm-verse, the book adds in small type: この外地震雷火事親父おふくろなどの来らぬときのまじない哥よみくさあれどもこゝにははぶく, besides this there are charm-verses to recite against the coming of earthquakes, thunder, fires, father, mother and the like, but here they are left out, with the readings ぢしん, かみなり, くわじ, おやぢ beside the characters [1]. The earliest print known with all four.

1820. うしろめん益身鏡, a comic book by 晋米斎玉粒. The thunder god complains that he has been ぢしんかみなりなどゝおやぢのれつにいれて, put in the same row as earthquakes and fathers [33]. The proverb known well enough to be joked about from inside.

1822. あと見よ蘓和歌, a book of teaching verses by 忍岡常丸, whose surname was 藤本. こはきもの地震雷火事親父あとみよそわか油断主人も, fearsome things: earthquake, thunder, fire, father; look behind you; a careless master too [6].

1831. 尾張童遊集, a record of Nagoya children's games and chants by 小寺玉晁. The four as a children's chant; the ことわざを知る辞典 names this the oldest source [4]. In the 1934 printing of the book they stand as 地震雷火事おやぢ, the father in kana, in a run of children's catchphrases [34].

1855. A broadsheet after the 安政 earthquake. A parody deity, 落涙山非常明王, whose image 地震雷火事親父を倶足し奉る本尊なり, is furnished with earthquake, thunder, fire and father, vowed to stop dissipation and weakness, 放蕩惰弱を止たまふ, and as the earthquake to bring down the storehouses of the greedy and wicked, 強欲いんあくの土蔵をおとし [35]. The sheet dates the quake to the night of 十月二日, the date of the 安政 Edo earthquake of 1855 [35]. The proverb made into a god.

1891 to 1928. The proverb dictionaries. 金諺一万集 (1891), 古今俚諺類聚 (1893), 俗諺辞林 (1901), 俚諺辞典 (1906) and 金言名句辞典 (1928) all carry it, with the father as 親父, 老爺 (1891) or 爺 (1906, 1928); 1891 has no gloss, and the others gloss it 怖しき者 (1893), 懼るべきものを集めたるなり (1901) or 恐るべき者を集めたるなり (1906, 1928), the fearsome things gathered [5][36][37][38][39]. 藤井乙男's 諺語大辞典 of 1910 has the entry with two words and no source: 【地震雷火事親父】恐るべきもの [40].

1900. 斎藤緑雨, わすれ貝. The joke turned inside out: 諺に曰く地震雷火事親父と、是れたゞ危險の度を示したるに過ぎず。苦痛の量よりすれば、親父火事雷地震也, the proverb says earthquake, thunder, fire, father, but that merely shows the degree of danger; by the quantity of pain, it runs father, fire, thunder, earthquake [2].

1911. 勝海舟, as told in 秋山悟庵's 和魂の跡. The book gives a talk of the old statesman's under the heading 今の世の恐ろしきもの, the fearsome things of the present age, and places it in Meiji 29, 1896 (これが廿九年の頃). He retires the proverb: 昔しから世に恐ろしきものは、何であるかと云ふと、地震雷火事親父だと云ふであつた, from of old, the fearsome things of the world were said to be earthquake, thunder, fire, father; but the father is now shouted down by his son (a Tenpō old-timer, what does an old man know, a nail should stay driven in), thunder runs our errands by telegraph and telephone, the fire brigades have made great fires rare, and seismology will sooner or later guard against earthquakes, so 此の四のものはもはや恐るゝに足らぬものとなつた, these four are no longer to be feared. What is fearsome now, he tells his guest, is 借金露西亜とコレラ, debt, Russia and cholera [3].

1933. 太宰治, 思ひ出. 地震雷火事親爺、それ以上に怖い戦争が起ったなら, earthquake, thunder, fire, father, and a war more frightening than any of them. This is the 精選版日本国語大辞典's first citation, two hundred years after the 1728 verse and a century and more after the comic books [4].

The dictionaries today. デジタル大辞泉: 世間でたいへん恐ろしいとされているものを、その順に並べていう言葉, the things the world holds to be very fearsome, named in that order. The ことわざを知る辞典: おおむね恐ろしい順に並んでいる, arranged roughly in order of fearsomeness; its note sets the earthquake and thunder first as dreadful natural disasters and brings the father in last as the surprise, 意外性のある, who is just as frightening all the same, たしかに怖いのは同じ; and it records a reading of 親父 as the village headman, which it allows has some sense in an age when people could not stand up to a boss, while holding that the children who chanted it pictured their own fathers [4].

What is not a source. A story circulates that 親父 was once おおやまじ, a great wind, corrupted from 大山嵐 into the father. The earliest source this history finds for it is a newspaper article of around autumn 2004, as quoted in a book of December 2005. The National Diet Library's full-text search returns 大山嵐 before 1868 only as one misread fragment in a 本草綱目 of 1653; in its modern books it is a place name, a personal name or a title, or, from 1901, a wind off a mountain, the wind off 大山 in a Mionoseki song among them, and it is tied to the proverb only from 2007, as the theory itself [41]; none of the proverb dictionaries from 1891 to 1928 cited above mentions it; and a prefectural library asked about it in 2005 found the reference works silent and the claim on web pages that give no source, and later found it in a December 2005 book quoting a newspaper article of around autumn 2004, in which a weather official says there is also a theory that [42]. It is a modern guess. The samurai maxim is a shogun's by report only: it is told of 吉宗 by 1758 and of 秀忠 in undated notebooks, and nothing written in either man's reign is known to carry it.

The proverb in English

1873. Ernest Satow, Kuaiwa Hen: Twenty-five Exercises in the Yedo Colloquial, exercise XXIV, sentence 22, pages 138–139. In a dialogue on a thunderstorm at the end of the rainy season, one speaker asks Are you very much afraid of thunder?, and the answer is Yo no kotowaza ni jishin, kaminari, kaji, oyaji to iimasu ga, watakushi wa kaminari sama ga ichiban koō gozaimasu, which Satow renders The proverb says: "Earthquake, thunder, fire, sire," but I am most afraid of thunder [12]. The Japanese text of the exercise writes the four as 地震雷回祿親父, with 回祿, the name of a Chinese god of fire and a word for a fire, glossed くはじ [43]. The earliest English rendering this history finds, and the only one of these that keeps the rhyme of 火事 and 親父, in fire and sire. The speaker, by the but, puts thunder first.

1897. Japan: Described and Illustrated by the Japanese, edited by Frank Brinkley, volume 1, page 7. On the perils the Japanese live among: They laughingly catalogue the four most formidable factors of everyday existence as "earthquakes, thunderbolts, fires, and fathers" (jishin, kaminari, kwaji, oyaji), the classification itself evincing the spirit in which it is made [13]. The rendering Browne, Mitford and Galef keep: thunderbolts for 雷, and the father last.

1897. P. Ehmann, Die Sprichwörter und bildlichen Ausdrücke der japanischen Sprache, Tokyo, number 1056, page 111, in German. Erdbeben, Donner, Feuer und Vater (sind am meisten zu fürchten), and the note Veranschaulicht ausdrucksvoll, dass es in der japanischen Familie gegen die unumschränkte väterliche Gewalt kein Mittel giebt, auch wenn sie zur grausamen Härte wird, shows vividly that in the Japanese family there is no remedy against the father's unlimited power, even when it turns to cruel harshness [44]. The father as the household's absolute authority, the reading Okada and Buchanan give in English six decades later.

1901. George Waldo Browne, Japan: The Place and the People, chapter IV, page 34. Four distinct sources of danger continually menace the safety of the Japanese, which they denominate, jishin, earthquakes, kaminari, thunderbolts, kwaji, fires, oyaji, fathers [14]. Reprinted in 1904 and in 1907.

1913. E. Bruce Mitford, Japan's Inheritance, page 273. "The four great factors of everyday life," says a Japanese saw, "are earthquakes, thunderbolts, fires, and fathers" [15]. Brinkley's four words and his factors of everyday, sixteen years on, here credited to a saw.

1958. Rokuo Okada, Japanese Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, Japan Travel Bureau, page 77. Jishin, kaminari, kaji, oyaji. Earthquake, thunder, fire, and father. These were the things dreaded by the Japanese of old, as arranged in order of intensity. Typhoons and floods are, of course, among other acts of God which devastate this island country almost every year. In feudal Japan the father, the head of the house, was proverbially dreaded [16]. The earliest English proverb book this history cites; his order of intensity names no direction, and Buchanan's sentence on the father as head of the house is close to his.

1965. Daniel Crump Buchanan, Japanese Proverbs and Sayings, page 96, under the heading Parents. Jishin, kaminari, kaji, oyaji: "Earthquake, thunder, fire, father." These four things named in ascending order of severity were proverbially feared by the Japanese. Prior to World War II and especially during the feudal period, the father as head of the house had almost complete control of the family and all in it [17]. His ascending order is a reading no Japanese-language dictionary read here makes; Okada's order of intensity before him names no direction; and he files the proverb under the heading Parents.

1984. Peter Haskel, Bankei Zen: Translations from the Record of Bankei, edited by Yoshito Hakeda, Grove Press, New York, the notes to the Hōgo, note 12. To the Zen master Bankei's dialogue with a woman uncommonly frightened of thunder, the translator adds: Japanese folk wisdom holds that there are four things to be feared above all others: earthquake, thunder, fire and one's father, in order of fearsomeness [45]. Like Okada's order of intensity, his order of fearsomeness names no direction, and his father is one's father, with no word of the head of the house.

1987. David Galef, Even Monkeys Fall from Trees, number 48. Earthquakes, thunderbolts, fires, fathers, and in his list of English equivalents Fear those greater than yourself [18]. The four words are Brinkley's of 1897.

2004. Edward Trimnell, Tigers, Devils, and Fools, page 66. Earthquakes, thunder, fires, and fathers all deserve your fear. (The last one might depend on the particular nature of your childhood.) These proverbs remind us that it is wise to fear some things. By fearing what is more powerful than you, you may save yourself from injury [19]. He says nothing about the order.

Today. JMdict: things to fear: earthquakes, thunder, fires and, most of all, fathers, which runs in Buchanan's direction [46]. The house title, Earthquakes, Thunderbolts, Fires, Fathers, is Galef's four words to the letter, and they were Brinkley's in 1897; it is the bare list, and it does what the Japanese does and lets the last word land on its own. What a rendering must keep is the order and the joke; Satow's sire of 1873 keeps the rhyme as well.

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Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Japanese Scroll of Earthquakes, Thunderbolts, Fires, Fathers (jishin kaminari kaji oyaji) in a block font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
地震雷火事親父VB6CBlock
Japanese Scroll of Earthquakes, Thunderbolts, Fires, Fathers (jishin kaminari kaji oyaji) in a cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
地震雷火事親父VC7BCursive
Japanese Scroll of Earthquakes, Thunderbolts, Fires, Fathers (jishin kaminari kaji oyaji) in Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's own style (Eri's Choice)
地震雷火事親父VD6BEri's Choice
Japanese Scroll of Earthquakes, Thunderbolts, Fires, Fathers (jishin kaminari kaji oyaji) in a semi-cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
地震雷火事親父VS7CSemi-Cursive

References

  1. 岡山鳥 作, 国貞 画『春廿三夜待』, 1814 (catalogued under 岡島琴驢 and 歌川豊国 3世; the 日本人名大辞典+Plus at kotobank 岡山鳥 gives 節亭琴驢 among his names, and the デジタル大辞泉 at kotobank 歌川国貞 calls 国貞 正式には3世豊国; the item record adds 歌川国繁 画), National Diet Library pid 8942983, scan 26. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/8942983/1/26
  2. 斎藤緑雨『わすれ貝』, 1900, National Diet Library pid 889322, scan 184. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/889322/1/184
  3. 秋山悟庵『和魂の跡』, 1911, National Diet Library pid 758725, scan 148. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/758725/1/148
  4. 「地震雷火事親父」, 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, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/地震雷火事親父-519561 · 「雷」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/雷-46704
  5. 『金諺一万集』, 1891, National Diet Library pid 755160, scan 188. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/755160/1/188
  6. 忍岡常丸 編『あと見よ蘓和歌』, 1822 (the 日本人名大辞典+Plus at kotobank 忍岡常丸: 姓は藤本), National Diet Library pid 2533915, scan 9. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2533915/1/9
  7. 藤井乙男『俗諺論』, 1906, National Diet Library pid 902816, scan 31. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/902816/1/31
  8. J. C. Hepburn, A Japanese and English Dictionary, second edition, 1872, the entry JI-SHIN 地震, An earthquake, National Diet Library pid 993689, scan 110. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/993689/1/110
  9. 斎藤秀三郎, 1918, National Diet Library pid 1681530, scan 205. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1681530/1/205
  10. 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, s.v. jishin and kaminari, National Diet Library pid 1126806, scans 210 (p. 404) and 245 (p. 472). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1126806/1/210 · 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, National Diet Library pid 1126792, scans 171, 269 and 445. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1126792/1/171
  11. 服部操『日華大字典』, 1925, National Diet Library pid 1017351, scan 636. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1017351/1/636
  12. Ernest Satow, Kuaiwa Hen: Twenty-five Exercises in the Yedo Colloquial, for the Use of Students, with Notes, Lane, Crawford & Co., Yokohama, 1873, exercise XXIV, sentence 22, pp. 138–139. https://archive.org/details/kuaiwahentwenty01satogoog/page/n154
  13. Japan: Described and Illustrated by the Japanese, written by eminent Japanese authorities and scholars, edited by Captain F. Brinkley, vol. 1, J. B. Millet, Boston, 1897, p. 7. https://archive.org/details/GVRJapanV01/page/n26
  14. George Waldo Browne, Japan: The Place and the People, Dana Estes, Boston, 1901, chapter IV, p. 34. https://archive.org/details/japanplacepeople00browuoft/page/n60
  15. E. Bruce Mitford, Japan's Inheritance: The Country, Its People, and Their Destiny, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1913 (the title verso: First published in 1913), p. 273. https://archive.org/details/japansinheritanc01mitf_1/page/n338
  16. Rokuo Okada, Japanese Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, Japan Travel Bureau, Tokyo, 1958, p. 77 (the shelved copy).
  17. Daniel Crump Buchanan, Japanese Proverbs and Sayings, University of Oklahoma Press, 1965, p. 96.
  18. David Galef, Even Monkeys Fall from Trees, Tuttle, 1987, no. 48, read in Tuttle's e-book edition of 2015.
  19. Edward Trimnell, Tigers, Devils, and Fools, Beechmont Crest, 2004, p. 66.
  20. David Galef, Even a Stone Buddha Can Talk, Tuttle, 2000.
  21. Guy Zona, Even Withered Trees Give Prosperity to the Mountain, Simon and Schuster, 1996.
  22. 『江戸名所図会』, 1834–36, National Diet Library pid 2559041, scan 5. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2559041/1/5
  23. 『武蔵志料』, National Diet Library pid 2563412, scan 44. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2563412/1/44
  24. 『鶯宿雑記』, National Diet Library pid 10303782, scan 102. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/10303782/1/102
  25. 『香袋』, 1868, National Diet Library pid 2533600, scan 58. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2533600/1/58
  26. 『墓所一覽遺編』, National Diet Library pid 2540267, scan 3. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2540267/1/3
  27. 『管見雑録』, National Diet Library pid 2539701, scan 155. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2539701/1/155
  28. 岡田哲 校訂『馬場文耕集』, 国書刊行会, 1987, the 明君享保録, National Diet Library pid 13441097; the same transcription first in 岡田哲, 明君享保録 國學院大學所蔵本 (下) の基礎的研究と翻刻, 『國學院雜誌』, May 1981, pid 3365535 (both read in the library's full-text index; neither is open to readers outside Japan); for 馬場文耕, kotobank: the 世界大百科事典 and the 日本大百科全書 give his arrest on 宝暦8年9月16日 (1758) and his execution on the 25th or 29th of the twelfth month, and the デジタル大辞泉 and the 日本人名大辞典+Plus his death as 1759 (the デジタル大辞泉 says 獄死, he died in prison), https://kotobank.jp/word/馬場文耕-604115. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/13441097 · 『明君享保録』, manuscript, one volume, preface dated 宝暦8 (1758), 北海道大学附属図書館 951.025/MEI, at the 国書データベース, preface frame 8, the passage frame 88 (CC BY-SA 4.0). https://doi.org/10.20730/100259499
  29. 『徳川実紀』, 有徳院殿御実紀附録, 経済雑誌社, 1904, National Diet Library pid 1917891, scan 198, p. 382 (begun 1809: the 精選版 日本国語大辞典 at kotobank 徳川実紀, 文化六年（一八〇九）起稿, and 嘉言徳行を付録とする, https://kotobank.jp/word/徳川実紀-104692). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1917891/1/198
  30. 松岡清助『守嚢』, manuscript, undated, National Diet Library pid 2533690, scan 144. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2533690/1/144
  31. 三木維清 輯『故花菴備忘録』, manuscript, late Edo, undated, National Diet Library pid 11446267, scan 34. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/11446267/1/34
  32. 『少年鑑』, 1908, National Diet Library pid 757038, scan 210. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/757038/1/210
  33. 晋米斎玉粒 作, 美丸 画『うしろめん益身鏡』, 1820, National Diet Library pid 10300976, scan 12. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/10300976/1/12
  34. 小寺玉晁 編『尾張童遊集』, 名古屋温古会, 1934, National Diet Library pid 1187267 (read in the library's full-text index; not open to readers outside Japan). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1187267
  35. 「落涙山非常明王くらの開扉の口上」, in 『江戸大地震之絵図』, 1855, National Diet Library pid 1302055, scan 1 (the 安政 Edo earthquake, 安政2年（1855）10月2日: the デジタル大辞泉 at kotobank 安政江戸地震, https://kotobank.jp/word/安政江戸地震-29230). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1302055/1/1
  36. 『古今俚諺類聚』, 1893, National Diet Library pid 767886, scan 12. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/767886/1/12
  37. 『俗諺辞林』, 1901, National Diet Library pid 863228, scan 47. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/863228/1/47
  38. 『俚諺辞典』, 1906, National Diet Library pid 900343, scan 166. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/900343/1/166
  39. 『金言名句辞典』, 1928, National Diet Library pid 1109999, scan 109. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1109999/1/109
  40. 藤井乙男『諺語大辞典』, 1910, 【地震雷火事親父】, National Diet Library pid 862766, scan 330. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/862766/1/330
  41. National Diet Library Digital Collections, full-text search on 大山嵐 at all years (before 1868 one misread fragment in a 本草綱目 of 1653; after, place names, personal names and titles, from 1901 a wind off a mountain, from 1908 the 大山 wind of the Mionoseki song 関はよい処, and the theory about 親父 from 2007). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/
  42. 香川県立図書館, reference answer registered 24 June 2005 and updated 22 November 2018, at the National Diet Library's Collaborative Reference Database. https://crd.ndl.go.jp/reference/entry/index.php?page=ref_view&id=1000022726
  43. Ernest Satow, 『会話篇』, the Japanese text, chapters 15 to 25, undated (the item record names no author; the text is the Japanese of the Kuaiwa Hen exercises, reference 12), National Diet Library pid 867985, scan 84 (回祿: the デジタル大辞泉 at kotobank 回禄, 中国の、火の神の名。火災, https://kotobank.jp/word/回禄-458762). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/867985/1/84
  44. P. Ehmann, Die Sprichwörter und bildlichen Ausdrücke der japanischen Sprache, Supplement to the Mittheilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens, Tokyo, 1897, no. 1056, p. 111. https://archive.org/details/mitteilungender13unkngoog/page/n139
  45. Peter Haskel, Bankei Zen: Translations from the Record of Bankei, edited by Yoshito Hakeda, Grove Press, New York, 1984, the notes to the Hōgo, note 12 (the shelved Grove ebook, which carries no page numbers).
  46. JMdict (EDRDG), entry 1421280 地震雷火事親父 じしんかみなりかじおやじ, proverb, release of 26 October 2026. https://www.edrdg.org/jmdict/j_jmdict.html

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), 2026-11-02, citations — 46 claims: 22 resolved, none differed or failed, 24 web, library and image addresses the script could not open (each opened in the reading sittings, and live for any reader) · two fresh-context readers per round (Claude), 2026-11-02, every claim in the page's summary block traced to its source, claim by claim: round 1 FAIL, both readers, on a wrong fact (the man behind the 1728 verse called an old man of Asakusa, where the record places only his grave there); round 2 FAIL, both readers, on wrong facts (a Japanese-English dictionary's gloss set aside, and an 1814 note quoted short of the words that say it leaves the charm-verses out); round 3 PASS from one reader, and from the other one fact narrowed (a shogun's saying); 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 地震雷火事親父 (jishin kaminari kaji oyaji)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/jishin-kaminari-kaji-oyaji.