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此の父にして此の息子有り kono chichi ni shite kono musuko ari Like Father, Like Son

此の父にして此の息子有り (kono chichi ni shite kono musuko ari) praises a fine son of a fine father, in the dictionaries' first sense. It is the proverb この父にしてこの子あり with 息子 for 子, and the son's form is in print from 1936. This study follows the proverb from the 孔叢子 through Bakin's novel of 1807–11 and finds the blame sense in print from 1905.

Japanese Scroll of Like Father, Like Son (kono chichi ni shite kono musuko ari) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Like Father, Like Son此の父にして此の息子有りkono chichi ni shite kono musuko ari

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

此の父にして此の息子有り, such a father, such a son, is the Japanese proverb この父にしてこの子あり with 息子, son, in place of 子, child. Both modern dictionaries give its first sense as praise, a fine son of a fine father, and call the blame sense a misuse [1][2]. This study reads the line it comes from, in the 孔叢子, where 子思 states it as a rule with an exception to keep a man from divorcing his wife; follows it into Japanese from Bakin's novel of 1807–11, where it is praise; and finds the blame sense in print from 1905, sixty years before the dictionary's first citation. The son's form is in print from 1936, and most of the books that print it after the war use it for the French or English proverb.

Overview

The sense. Praise first: only such a fine father could have such a fine child (精選版日本国語大辞典), and, in the second dictionary, a child takes after its parent (デジタル大辞泉). Both give a second sense, such a bad parent, such a bad child, and both call it a misuse, 誤用 [1][2].

The words. にして, being, given that it is; 子 ko, a child of either sex, which the proverb uses, replaced here with 息子 musuko, son; あり, there is, which this text writes in kanji as 有り, the character of the Chinese, as the kanbun reading keeps it [1][3].

The text in English. Like father, like son carries praise and blame alike, and has from its first English example, Ill sunnys folous ill fadirs (c. 1340) [4]. Japanese–English dictionaries set the two proverbs side by side from 1909 [5][6].

The historical record

The 孔叢子, chapter 居衛. A book of the sayings of Confucius's descendants, attributed to 孔鮒 and judged a forgery of the Wei and Jin [7]. In 齊, 尹文子 has a son unlike him, beats him, and tells 子思 that the boy is not his and he will put away his wife. 子思 answers that by that reasoning the consorts of 堯 and 舜 would be suspect, since their sons were worse than common men:

然舉其多者，有此父斯有此子，道之常也，若夫賢父之有愚子，此由天道自然，非子之妻之罪也

Taking most cases, with such a father there is such a son; that is the constant way. But when a wise father has a foolish son, that is heaven's way and nature, not your wife's fault [8]. The 四部叢刊 text reads 人道之常也, the constant way of man [9]. In its chapter the line is a rule of likeness with its exception, said for the wife's sake, not praise of anyone.

What stands beside it. The Meiji dictionaries that cite the 孔叢子 set two Han lines beside it [10]: Yang Xiong's 法言, of a father and son known for their filial care, 石奮、石建，父子之美也。無是父，無是子；無是子，無是父, Shi Fen and Shi Jian, the beauty of father and son: without this father, not this son; without this son, not this father [11]; and the 史記, where the emperor says of 張湯's mother, who buried him on an ox cart, 非此母不能生此子, none but this mother could have borne this son [12]. These are praise, and they are pairings, not the source. The 孔叢子 was read in Japan in 冢田大峯's annotated edition, its preface dated 1795 [13].

1807–11, 曲亭馬琴, 『椿説弓張月』. The first Japanese use the dictionary cites, at the leaf: a princess hears how a loyal father was cut down and how his sons served him, and says 将汝等が孝心。世に儔稀なり。嗚乎この父にして。この子あり, and your filial hearts are rare in the world. Ah, such a father, such sons [1][14]. Bakin uses it a second time in the same novel, of 為朝 and his son 舜天丸 [15]. Praise, of a father's loyalty and his sons' devotion.

1886–1940. Praise. A Meiji biographical dictionary has 毛利勝永 say it of 真田幸村's son, who came back from his first battle with a head and a wound: 此の父にして此の子あり [16]. A 1931 book on loyalty and Zen says it of 楠木正行 dying at 四條畷 as his father died: 此親にしてこの子あり。母の教諫多きによる, such a parent, such a child; it was his mother's many admonitions [17]. A 1921 teishō on the 碧巌録 prints the Chinese 此父而有此子 with its reading beneath, 此の父にして此の子有り, said of a Zen master and the heir who matched him [3]. The local directories of the 1910s to 1930s say it of sons who carry on a father's business, office or learning as readily as the war books say it of sons who die as their fathers died [18].

1905–1949. Blame. 坪内雄蔵, lecturing on public and private morals, on parents who leave their children to others: 况んや此の親にして此の子ありといふ薄情者、我儘者であらうものなら, still worse if the child is a heartless, selfish one of the such-a-parent-such-a-child kind [19]. A 1909 Bible history says it of Cain's line, 此の父にして此の子あり、どうせ善い家庭を樂しむことはできない, such a father, such a son; they could never enjoy a good home [20]. A 1915 telling of the forty-seven rōnin says it of a cruel man's cruel son [21]; a 1934 history says it of 蘇我入鹿 and his father [22]; a newspaper headline of 1949, quoted in a Supreme Court report, reads この親にしてこの子あり、茶谷一家の真相 over a story of a family's misconduct [23]. The dictionary dates the blame sense by its first citation, 唐木順三 in 1965 [1]; the use is sixty years older.

1936. The son's form. A political memoir of 1936, of a samurai killed fighting the imperial army in 1868 and his son, the shipbuilder 奥畑義平: この父にしてこの息子あり乎, such a father, and such a son? [24]. It is in print again in 1943, of Napoleon and his father. From 1949 a French grammar gives it as the Japanese of Tel père, tel fils, and most of the ninety-three books the search returns from then on use the form with 息子 for the French or English proverb, in proverb books and translated fiction, in praise and in blame [25]. This scroll writes it 此の父にして此の息子, with 此 in kanji, a spelling the National Diet Library's full-text search does not return at all [25].

The proverb in English

1909, 井上十吉, Inouye's Japanese–English Dictionary. Under Shite: この父にしてこの子あり, As the father is, so is the son [5]. The same year a bilingual phrase dictionary gives 此父にして此子あり for Like father, like son and the French Tel père, tel fils [6].

The English proverb. The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs compares the Latin qualis pater talis filius and gives Rolle's Ill sunnys folous ill fadirs (c. 1340), Draxe's Like father like sonne (1616) and Dykes's comment of 1709, How many Sons inherit their Fathers Failings, as well as Estates? [4]. The English carries blame from its first example; the Japanese dictionaries' first sense is praise.

Today. Both dictionaries give praise first and call blame a misuse [1][2], and the press uses it in blame [26]. What a rendering must keep is that the Japanese proverb is first a word of praise, though Japanese writers have used it of bad fathers and bad sons for over a century.

A reading

The proverb began as an argument about likeness, not praise: 子思 tells a jealous husband that sons usually take after their fathers and that a son who does not is no proof against his wife. Japanese took it up as an exclamation of praise, Bakin's princess admiring a loyal father's filial sons, and the dictionaries keep that as its sense. Its use in print has never been only praise: 坪内 in 1905 used it of selfish children of careless parents, and the misuse the dictionary dates to 1965 was in print again and again by 1915. What decides the sense is who says it of whom. Said to a son of his father, it is praise. 有り and あり are one word in two spellings; the kanji is the Chinese source's own character, and the kanbun reading writes it the same way.

Sources not seen

A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.

References

  1. 「此親にしてこの子あり」, 精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/此親にしてこの子あり-2039684
  2. 「此の親にして此の子あり」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/此の親にして此の子あり-503508
  3. 日置黙仙, 鉄笛倒吹講話, 下巻, 実業之日本社, 1921, scan 122. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/963235/1/122
  4. Jennifer Speake, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, 6th ed., Oxford University Press, 2015, s.v. Like FATHER, like son.
  5. 井上十吉, Inouye's Japanese–English Dictionary (和英辞典 新訳), 三省堂, 1909, s.v. Shite, scan 726. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1869465/1/726
  6. 神田乃武, 南日恒太郎, 英和双解熟語大辞典, 有朋堂, 1909, scan 882. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/990169/1/882
  7. 「孔叢子」, 日本大百科全書 (ニッポニカ) and 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/孔叢子-55418
  8. 孔叢子, 居衛第七, at Chinese Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/孔叢子/07
  9. 孔叢子, 四部叢刊本, 卷第二, at Chinese Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/孔叢子_(四部叢刊本)/卷第二
  10. 藤井乙男, ed., 諺語大辞典, 有朋堂, 1910, scan 224. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/862766/1/224
  11. 揚雄, 法言, 孝至卷第十三, at Chinese Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/法言/13
  12. 司馬遷, 史記, 卷一百二十二, 酷吏列傳, at Chinese Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/史記/卷122
  13. 冢田大峯, 冢註孔叢子, preface 寛政七 (1795), 国書データベース work 372065. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/work/372065
  14. 曲亭馬琴, 葛飾北斎 画, 椿説弓張月, 28 vols., 1807–11, the National Diet Library's set, its fourth item, scan 167. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2557125/1/167
  15. 曲亭馬琴, 椿説弓張月, the same set, scan 30. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2557127/1/30
  16. 嵯峨正作, ed., 大日本人名辞書, 経済雑誌社, 1886, scan 183. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/779849/1/183
  17. 飯田欓隠, 忠禅, 中央仏教社, 1931, scan 40. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1032017/1/40
  18. 地方自治政の沿革と其の人物 : 熊本県, 1932, one of many such directories, scan 920. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1234599/1/920
  19. 坪内雄蔵, 公徳と私徳, 早稲田大学出版部, 1905, scan 22. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/987948/1/22
  20. 三浦徹, tr., 通俗旧約史談, 上巻, 基督教書類会社, 1909, scan 17. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/825450/1/17
  21. 伊藤痴遊, 誠忠四十七士, 日本書院, 1915, scan 116. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/954177/1/116
  22. 中村徳五郎, 国史の輝, 1, 巧人社, 1934, scan 217. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1168329/1/217
  23. 最高裁判所裁判集, 刑事 51, 最高裁判所, 1951, scan 381, quoting a newspaper of 5 January 1949. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1363905/1/381
  24. 玉水常治, 自由か死か : 自由党大阪事件加波山事件志士玉水常治自伝, 白揚社, 1936, scan 143. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1229202/1/143
  25. National Diet Library Digital Collections, full-text search on この父にしてこの息子, oldest first (93 items, 1936 onward), and on 此の父にして此の息子 (none). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/search/searchResult?keyword=この父にしてこの息子&fulltext=true&sortKey=ISSUED_ASC
  26. CiNii Research, search on この親にしてこの子あり: weekly-magazine headlines of 2000 and 2001. https://cir.nii.ac.jp/all?q=この親にしてこの子あり

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), 2026-09-06, citations of the seven-text grouped history this page was split from; its one contradiction here (人道之常也 against 道之常也) is settled by the Chinese witnesses, which print both, and every other sentence it checked here was rewritten at the gate of 2026-10-01

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 此の父にして此の息子有り (kono chichi ni shite kono musuko ari)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/kono-chichi-ni-shite-kono-musuko-ari.