子供の為に kodomo no tame ni For the Sake of the Children
子供の為に (kodomo no tame ni), for the sake of the children, is a reason without a verb, and older in Japanese print than its plainness suggests: a mother in a Chikamatsu puppet play of 1718 feigns illness for her children's sake, and in 1891 Cedric's mother says it in Wakamatsu Shizuko's translation of Little Lord Fauntleroy.
Abstract
子供の為に, kodomo no tame ni, for the sake of the children, is a reason without a verb, plain standard Japanese, and older in print than its plainness suggests. It is in a mother's mouth in a Chikamatsu puppet play of 1718, under prayer in a Bible concordance of 1889, and in Cedric's mother's mouth in an 1891 translation of Little Lord Fauntleroy.
Overview
The sense. Plain standard Japanese; not a set expression, it is what the words say. 子供の為に is a reason without a verb, for the children's sake, and Japanese leaves the verb off as English does; for the children is the whole of the phrase, and what one does for them is left unsaid. The oldest page read here is a mother in a Chikamatsu play of 1718 who feigns illness for her children's sake, in an 1891 print; the same year of print has a Meiji translator's Little Lord Fauntleroy.
The words. 子供 kodomo: 年のいかない幼い者。児童, a young person; a child, and the children one has, 親がもうけた子; the dictionary notes that ども was a plural ending and the word now serves for one child or many. Its first citation is the 日本書紀 of 720, 児息 read コトモ [1]. 為 tame: 利益があること。役立つこと, benefit, use, with the dictionary's own example 子供の為を思う, to think of the children's good; then cause; then 目的や期待の向かうところ, the object toward which purpose or hope is directed, 健康の為に運動をする, to exercise for the sake of health. 子供の為に is the third sense, purpose, with the first, benefit, behind it [2].
The text in English. For the sake of the children is 子供の為に exactly, and 子供 answers to child or children alike [3].
The historical record
1718, printed 1891. Chikamatsu. In 曽我会稽山, the Soga brothers' mother, in a speech on a mother's love: 子供の爲にと病を作り思ひ設けし母が慈悲い仇と成, the mercy of a mother who, for her children's sake, feigned illness and planned ahead, has turned to harm; the leaf's own text is 慈悲は仇と成, is for は. The play is Chikamatsu's of 1718; the library's text is an 1891 reprint, and of the dated books the National Diet Library's full-text search finds with the phrase, 1,684 to 1946, it is the oldest text read here [4] [5].
1889 and 1891. A concordance, and Little Lord Fauntleroy. A Bible concordance of 1889 lists, under prayer, 祈禱, the heading (子供の爲に), for children, with its references, one of them Matthew 15:22, the Canaanite woman who prays for her daughter [6]. And Wakamatsu Shizuko's translation of Burnett has the phrase in Cedric's mother's mouth: 仰の通り、子供の爲には結構なことで御座りませう, as you say, for the child's sake it is a fine thing. The Meiji phrase is a parent's, and a praying one [7].
What is not a source. The phrase has no author. The Chikamatsu line is the oldest page read here and not the origin; a mother's for the children need not have begun in a book.
Today. The English for the sake of the children keeps what 子供の為に keeps: the purposive に, for the sake of, not a possessive.
A reading
The Chikamatsu mother stands behind 子供の為に: a phrase a puppet-play mother says in 1718 and a Meiji translator gives to Cedric's mother in 1891 has earned the right to be called Japanese. It is a parent's reason, said without its verb, and what is done for the children is left for the one who says it.
References
- 「子供」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/子供
- 「為」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/為
- JMdict (EDRDG), 「子供」, at jisho. https://jisho.org/word/子供
- 近松門左衛門, 『曽我会稽山』, 武蔵屋叢書閣, 1891 print (1718 play), scan 28. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/876698/1/28
- National Diet Library next-generation full-text search on 子供の為に, searched again 26 September 2026: 1,684 books to 1946. https://lab.ndl.go.jp/dl/api/book/search?searchfield=contentonly&keyword=子供の為に
- 上田貞次郎編, 『旧新約両全書聖語類聚』, 上田済生堂, 1889, scan 18. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/825559/1/18
- バアネット, 『小公子』, 若松賤子訳, 1891, scan 34. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1168359/1/34