Fine Japanese Calligraphy

The Art of Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase

Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, PayPal accepted
Home › Library › Philology › Fall Down Seven, Get Up Eight

七転八起 nana korobi ya oki Fall Down Seven, Get Up Eight

七転八起 (nana korobi ya oki), fall down seven times, get up eight, is a Japanese proverb of rising again after every fall. It is in print as a saying by 1702, and Hagakure 葉隠 reports it as a byword of the samurai of Saga. This study follows its two Edo senses, resolve and consolation, to the daruma doll and into English.

Japanese Scroll of Fall Down Seven, Get Up Eight (nana korobi ya oki) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Fall Down Seven, Get Up Eight七転八起nana korobi ya oki

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

All Fonts ›

Abstract

七転八起, fall down seven times, get up eight, is a Japanese proverb in print as a saying by 1702, in a novel where a courtesan consoles her ruined patron with it, and Hagakure 葉隠, dictated between 1710 and 1716, reports it as a byword of the samurai of Saga in the first half of the seventeenth century. Both senses it carries today are Edo: in Hagakure it is a retainer's resolve not to lose heart at dismissal, and he is told to think of himself as a self-righting doll; in the printed fiction from 1702 to the 1820s it is consolation about the turns of luck, and a comic picture book of 1803 makes the self-righting doll, which the proverb carries today as the daruma, the figure of good fortune. It shares three characters with a Chinese idiom, 七転八倒 (shichiten battō), which Japanese reads as writhing in agony. English has rendered it since 1872, first as a description, then with the imperative get up eight from 1920; the wording fall down seven times, get up eight is in print by 1964, and a shorter form, fall seven times, stand up eight, runs beside it.

Overview

The sense. The tradition holds two senses, and both are Edo. One is resolve: not giving up, getting up once more than one is knocked down. Hagakure reports it as a byword of the retainers of Saga, who said a man was no true retainer until he had been dismissed seven times and come back, and it tells him to think of himself as a self-righting doll [1]. The other is consolation about luck: a person is knocked down seven times and gets up eight, so bad is followed by good, said to someone in trouble: by a courtesan to her ruined patron in 1702, by a rat to a boy in 1798, to a friend in 1803, a lover in 1824, a long-lost relative in 1825. The Meiji dictionaries hold both, and Meiji also used the four characters as a noun for a life or a career.

The words. Four characters, two verbs with their counts. 七 nana, seven. 転 korobi, to fall over, to tumble; the older books write 轉 or 顛, one word in three shapes. 八 ya, eight. 起 oki, to get up. The arithmetic is the point: seven falls need only seven risings, and the proverb asks for eight. The current proverb dictionary explains the extra one as the number of standing up once more than one was knocked down, and adds the folklore of the two numbers, seven for many with a shadow on it, eight for the auspicious spread of the character's two strokes. The characters are read two ways. As a Japanese sentence they are ななころびやおき, the proverb, which is the older reading. As a Sino-Japanese word they are しちてんはっき, a yojijukugo the big dictionary first finds in 1885, meaning the same thing as a noun. Under both sits an older idiom that shares three of the four characters, 七転八倒 shichiten battō. It is Chinese: the Hekiganroku 碧巌録 (The Blue Cliff Record) has it for tumbling every which way and yet being free at all times [2], and the Japanese dictionaries find it as writhing in agony from the Taiheiki 太平記 of the late fourteenth century [3]. The proverb reads, to me, as cut on its pattern with the last verb turned from topple to rise; no dictionary opened says so.

The proverb in English. The Meiji bilingual dictionaries render it as a description, not a slogan: Takahashi Gorō 高橋五郎 in 1888 gives Seven times falling and eight times rising up [4], Brinkley in 1896 Seven times down (but) eight times up; i.e. to be at last crowned with success after repeated failures [5], and Shimada Yutaka 島田豊 with Shimada Otomaru 島田弟丸 in 1900 To be successful the eighth time after seven repeated failures [6]. Hepburn's second edition of 1872 already has it under the verb, (prov.) to fall seven times and rise eight [7], and his fourth of 1888 keeps it [8]. A list of Japanese proverbs in English carries To fall seven times, to stand the eighth in 1880 [9]. Rose-Innes's phrase book of 1920 gives the imperative, (lit.) if you fall seven times get up eight, and is the first found to set if at first you don't succeed, try, try again beside it [10]. Okada's collection of 1958 captions a daruma with it and glosses it as the ups and downs of a life and the determination to get up however often one is downed, Buchanan's of 1965 glosses it The vicissitudes of fortune [11], and Kenkyūsha's dictionaries of 1942 and 1974 enter it. The wording fall down seven times, get up eight is in print by 1964, as a Japanese proverb in an American salesmanship book [12], and again in 1974, unattributed [13]; it enters the Japanese-proverb shelf with Galef in 1987 [14], is a Korean proverb in Grant's 1982 book [15], a chapter title in Rubin's 1996 book [16], and reaches the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs in 2008 [17]. Trimnell in 2004 gives a third wording [18]; the Little Oxford in 2009 enters the terser form, fall seven times, stand up eight [19]; Galef's 2012 reissue keeps the 1987 wording [20], and Higashida's 2016 memoir carries the proverb as a title [21].

The historical record

1702, Miyako no Nishiki 都の錦, 元禄大平記, book four, read in the 1916 typeset. The patron 伊勢屋の助 has stopped coming to the courtesan 花咲 for a year; he turns up at her gate in a paper robe, having squandered everything, and she, who had resented his silence, consoles him: さうした事にて中絶へ申すは、世間にたんとあるならひ、七ころび八起と申せば、身を捨てもまた浮ぶ瀬あり、さのみ御歎きあるまじ, to fall out of touch for such a reason happens all the time in the world; as they say, seven falls and eight risings, and one who has thrown himself away still finds a shallows to come up on; do not grieve so [22]. She strings the proverb with a second saying, 身を捨ててこそ浮かぶ瀬もあれ, which the Nihon kokugo daijiten 日本国語大辞典 finds from 1632 [23]. The proverb is already a saying, said to someone in trouble, and this is the earliest print of it that the National Diet Library's full-text search finds.

About 1716, Hagakure, the sayings of Yamamoto Tsunetomo 山本常朝 (also read Jōchō, as his Buddhist name) taken down by Tashiro Tsuramoto 田代陣基 from 1710, kept in manuscript and first printed in 1906, read in the 1937 edition. 浪人などして取亂すは沙汰の限りなり。勝茂公御代の衆は、「七度浪人せねば誠の奉公人にてなし。七轉び八起き。」と、口附けに申し候由。成富兵庫など七度浪人の由。起上り人形の樣に合點すべきなり, to go to pieces at being dismissed is beyond all reason. The men of Lord Katsushige's day had it on their lips: "no one is a true retainer until he has been dismissed seven times. Fall seven, rise eight." Narutomi Hyōgo and the like were dismissed seven times, they say. Think of yourself as a self-righting doll [1]. The first print of 1906 words it otherwise: 勝茂公の御代の人は、七度浪人せざれば、まことの奉公人にてなし。七ころび八起きと, the proverb in kana [24]. Nabeshima Katsushige 鍋島勝茂 ruled Saga from 1607 and died in 1657 [25], so the book reports the saying as current in the first half of the seventeenth century. It is the resolve sense, said of dismissal and return to service, and the doll is advice to the retainer: the next sentence warns that his lord may dismiss him to try him, 主人も試みに仰せ付けらるゝ事あるべし.

1797, Ōta Zensai 太田全斎, Gen'en 諺苑, his collection of common sayings. The library's full-text index finds 七轉 and 八起 within three characters of each other in both of its printed editions, 1944 and 1966; neither edition can be opened from outside Japan, so the entry itself was not read [26].

1798, Jippensha Ikku 十返舎一九, Ontokuyō kane no waraji 御徳用黄金艸鞋, a picture book in two volumes, in the National Diet Library's copy. A boy called 三太郎 has been given golden straw sandals and told to wear them out working, day and night; he keeps slipping and falling, and a rat picks him up: ころんでもいゝ七ころび八おきとたとへのとふりころんでも又おきるものなれはそこをしんぼうせねばならす, it's all right to fall; as the saying goes, seven falls and eight risings; one falls and gets up again, so that is where you must bear it. The phrase is already the saying, たとへ, and already a consolation [27].

Between 1797 and 1829, the Rigen shūran 俚言集覧, the dictionary of common speech Ōta Zensai built on his Gen'en, read in its enlarged edition of 1899–1900. Among the entries beginning with seven, 七乞食○七轉八起七小町, the four characters stand in a list without a gloss: a saying a lexicographer of the age already had to hand [28][29].

1803 imprint, Santō Kyōden 山東京伝, Urayasan mitōshi zashiki 裡家算見通坐敷. In a comic piece on household fortunes: 人は七ころび八おきといふことがあれば, since there is the saying that a person falls seven times and rises eight [30].

1803, Kyōden, Ningen banji fukiya no mato 人間萬事吹矢的, a comic picture book, read in the 1926 typeset. A shooting-gallery booth in which each target a heart's arrow hits springs out a figure: 心の矢が仕合せの的へ當ると起上り小法師を出す。これ七轉八起の故なり, when the heart's arrow hits the target of good fortune, out comes a self-righting doll; that is because of seven-falls-eight-risings, with the reading なゝころびやおき over the four characters [31]. The doll and the proverb together, in print, and the doll is the prize for the target of good fortune: the luck sense.

1805, 1808 and after, Kyokutei Bakin 曲亭馬琴, read in the typesets of the 1880s. Bakin uses the four characters as a stock phrase of the narrator's voice, with the reading over them: 七轉八起といへば。よき事もあり。あしき事もなくてや, as they say, seven falls eight risings: there are good things, and are there not bad ones too (Sanshichi zenden nanka no yume 三七全伝南柯夢) [32]; 人は七轉八起とかいふ世話もあるに, there is that saying, a person falls seven and rises eight, said to console a young man (Nansō Satomi hakkenden 南総里見八犬伝, 1814–42, its seventh series) [33]. Once he uses it in the other idiom's sense: a poisoned man 七轉八起して狂ひ死にぞ死たりける, writhed, and died raving, with the on-reading しつてんはつき over it, where the dictionaries would write 七転八倒 [34]. The two idioms were not yet sorted in his prose.

1821, Shuntei Sangyō 春亭三暁, Kōzutsumi hagi no shiratsuyu 十種香萩廼白露, and 1824, Tamenaga Shunsui 為永春水, Kiku no i sōshi 菊廼井草紙, two sentimental novels. わかき時には七ころび八おきといへば, when one is young, they say, seven falls eight risings [35]; and, in a quarrel about a husband's failures, それも人は七轉八起とやらだから, still, they say a person falls seven and rises eight, so [36]. Spoken consolation, both times, about luck that may turn.

1825, Hana Sanjin 鼻山人, Fūzoku suikoden 風俗粋好伝, second series, illustrated by Keisai Eisen 渓斎英泉. A reunion scene, and the line that is the proverb's Edo sense in one breath: ハテ人は七轉び八起じや。悪い跡は善といふから, well, a person falls seven and rises eight; they say good comes after bad. The printed characters are 七轉び八起 with their kana beside them, in the third column of the right-hand page [37].

1885, Tsubouchi Shōyō 坪内逍遙, Tōsei shosei katagi 当世書生気質, the first modern novel, read in the 1886 printing. A student holds forth on a fifty-year life: 人生五十年、其五十年間にやあ失策もあるし成功もあるも恥もかく名誉も得る七転八起、一栄一辱、棺に白布を蓋ふにいたつて初めて其名誉が定まるんだ, fifty years of a life, and in them failures and successes, shame and honor, seven falls and eight risings, a glory and a disgrace; only when the coffin is covered with white cloth is a man's honor settled. This is the sentence the Nihon kokugo daijiten gives as the first citation of the word しちてんはっき: the four characters as a noun, and a whole life as its subject [38].

1894, Mozume Takami 物集高見, Nihon daijirin 日本大辞林, the Imperial Household's dictionary. ななころびやおき。七轉八起。おくることの、ころぶことよりもおほくあるをいふことわざ, a proverb meaning that one's risings are more than one's fallings. The proverb's first dictionary definition [39].

1902, Nihon shakai jii 日本社会事彙, second volume, the entry on daruma. On the papier-mâché dolls made at Takasaki 高崎: 世人の之を購ふ所以のものは。盖し春夏秋蠶の當らんを祈り。且は七轉八起の功德に據らむが爲め, people buy them to pray that the spring, summer and autumn silkworm crops come in, and to draw on the merit of seven-falls-eight-risings. The doll that rights itself when pushed over is the proverb's emblem; Hagakure had told the dismissed retainer to think of himself as a self-righting doll two centuries earlier, Kyōden put the doll and the saying in one picture in 1803, and this is the earliest pairing with the daruma by name in what was read here. The encyclopedias date the daruma's taking over from the older 起上り小法師, and its spread with the saying, to the middle of the Edo period [40][41].

1910, Fujii Otoo 藤井乙男, Gengo daijiten 諺語大辞典, the great proverb dictionary. 【七顛八起】人世の浮沈定めなきこと。又困難に屈せずして、世と闘ふことにいふ, the ups and downs of a human life, which nothing fixes; also said of not yielding to hardship and fighting on in the world. Two senses in one line, the old and the new. The next entry is 【七顛八倒】のたうちて苦みもがくこと, to writhe and struggle in pain, with its source, the Hekiganroku: 到這裏七顛八倒、於一切時中、得大自在. The proverb and the idiom that shares its three characters sit one above the other on the page; Fujii glosses the idiom by the Japanese sense and quotes a Zen line in which it means tumbling every which way and yet being free [42][2].

The dictionaries today. Daijisen 大辞泉 enters both readings: ななころびやおき《七度転んで八度起き上がる意から》多くの失敗にもめげず、そのたびに奮起して立ち直ること。転じて、人生には浮き沈みが多いことのたとえ; and しちてんはっき, not giving up however often one fails, and seeing it through. The proverb dictionary's examples are Okamoto Kidō 岡本綺堂 in 1912 and Sōma Aizō 相馬愛蔵 in 1952; the yojijukugo dictionary's is Korekawa Ginzō 是川銀蔵 in 1991 [43]. In the National Diet Library's index of public-domain books before 1945, the four characters are in 654 books, the spelling with kana endings 七轉び八起 in 536 (410 of them with the final き of today's headword) and the all-kana one in 58; the four characters do not show which reading is meant, so the 654 hold the noun しちてんはっき as well as the proverb. That index's classical facet holds nothing before 1798 under any of nine spellings; the 1702 novel, Hagakure and Gen'en reach it only through their modern typesets.

What is not a source. The Chinese idiom 七顛八倒 is at most the pattern, not the source: in Japanese it means writhing, in the Hekiganroku tumbling about in freedom, and no dictionary derives the proverb from it beyond setting the two side by side. The Korean 칠전팔기, the same four characters read in Korean and listed among a hundred Korean proverbs in an American book of 1982, may be the same coinage in another language; whether it is, and which language had it first, the sources opened do not settle [15]. The self-righting doll is the proverb's emblem, beside it in Hagakure and in print with it by 1803, not its origin. And If at first you don't succeed, try, try again, which Rose-Innes in 1920, Galef and the Oxford dictionary set beside it, is an English proverb of the nineteenth century with its own history.

The proverb in English

1872. James Curtis Hepburn, Wa-Ei gorin shūsei 和英語林集成 (A Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary), second edition, under korobi. Nana korobi ya oki, (prov.) to fall seven times and rise eight [7].

1880. Edward J. Reed, Japan: Its History, Traditions, and Religions, volume two, London, John Murray. In a run of Japanese proverbs given in English only: To fall seven times, to stand the eighth [9]. Books of 1882 repeat the list word for word, so they are one witness with it.

1888. Hepburn, fourth edition, page 832. The same entry, nana korobi ya oki, (prov.) to fall seven times and rise eight, still an example under the verb, not a headword [8].

1888, Takahashi Gorō, Kan-Ei taishō iroha jiten 漢英対照いろは辞典, Tokyo, p. 504. ななころびやおき 七轉八起(人生は禍多けれども又終に福にも至るの義をいふ) Seven times falling and eight times rising up. The gloss is the consolation sense: a life has many misfortunes but comes at last to fortune [4].

1896, F. Brinkley and others, Wa-Ei daijiten 和英大辞典 (An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary), pages 998 and 1071. Twice: as a headword, marked as a proverb, Nanakorobi-yaoki, Seven times down (but) eight times up; i.e. to be at last crowned with success after repeated failures; and under oki, marked literally, Nana korobi ya oki, seven times falling down and eight times getting up (in allusion to the extreme mutability of man's fortune) [5].

1900, Shimada Yutaka and Shimada Otomaru, Gakuseiyō Wa-Ei jiten 学生用和英字典, Tokyo, Hakubunkan 博文館. To be successful the eighth time after seven repeated failures [6].

1920. Arthur Rose-Innes, Conversational Japanese for Beginners, Yokohama. Under korobu: nana-korobi ya-oki: (lit.) if you fall seven times get up eight; get up every time you fall; never say die; if at first you don't succeed, try, try again [10]. The imperative, and the English equation, sixty-seven years before Galef.

1942. Kenkyūsha 研究社, Kenkyūsha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, page 1323. A headword: nanakorobi-yaoki (七転び八起き). Vicissitudes of fortune; ups and downs of life. 七転び八起きな生涯 a checkered career. 彼の生涯は七転び八起きだった. He has had many ups and downs in his life. The wheel of Fortune turns round. / Have fortitude under misfortune [44]. The English is a description of a life, with one line of counsel, have fortitude under misfortune, but not the slogan.

1957. Alan W. Watts, The Way of Zen, New York, Pantheon. On the daruma: Nana korobi Ya oki. Such is life— Seven times down, Eight times up! [45]. The book that carried the doll and the saying to a large English readership.

1958. Okada Rokuo, Japanese Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, pages 114–115. A daruma tumbler captioned with the proverb — "Daruma" tumblers are not only toys for boys, but are also mascots for Japanese shopkeepers because they bob up the moment they are knocked over — and the entry: Nana-korobi ya-oki. Seven falls and eight rises. Life is a series of successes and failures, a repetition of ups and downs. In the light of this, it is wise for us to have the determination to get up when we are downed, no matter how often, closed with It is a long lane that has no turning [46]. Both senses, in one English gloss.

1964. Percy H. Whiting, The Five Great Problems of Salesmen and How to Solve Them, New York, McGraw-Hill. As an epigraph: Fall down seven times, get up eight. JAPANESE PROVERB [12]. The earliest print of the modern English wording that the Internet Archive's full-text index finds.

1965. Daniel Crump Buchanan, Japanese Proverbs and Sayings, University of Oklahoma Press. Nana-korobi-ya-oki: "The vicissitudes of fortune." (Lit., "Seven falls and eight rises.") There are many ups and downs in life, but patient perseverance will win in the end [11].

1974. Kenkyūsha, fourth edition, page 1184. The 1942 entry, with one more sentence: 世の中は七転び八起きだ. If you fall down seven times, get up eight. / Life is full of ups and downs. / The wheel of fortune turns round [47]. The slogan form, if you fall down seven times, get up eight, is in a Japanese dictionary in 1974, the year Kip Quotes prints it in America.

1974, Kip Quotes, Clifton Burke, Taylor Publishing. Fall down seven times; get up eight, unattributed there [13].

1982, Bruce K. Grant, Korean Proverbs: Dragon Head, Snake Tail, Salt Lake City, Moth House. Fall down seven times and get up eight, among a hundred Korean proverbs [15].

1987, David Galef, Even Monkeys Fall from Trees: The Wit and Wisdom of Japanese Proverbs, Tokyo and Rutland, Tuttle, no. 100. 七転び八起き Nana-korobi ya-oki. Fall down seven times, get up eight, and in his list of equivalents, If at first you don't succeed, try, try again [14].

1996, Lillian B. Rubin, The Transcendent Child, New York, Basic Books. The title of chapter one [16].

2004, William Scott Wilson, The Lone Samurai, page 128. Of the daruma doll: a popular round, legless doll of the patriarch is seen almost everywhere and is accompanied by the saying, Life is falling down seven times, getting up eight / Jinsei nanakorobi, ya'oki [48].

2004, Edward Trimnell, Tigers, Devils, and Fools: A Guide to Japanese Proverbs, Beechmont Crest. NANAKOROBI YAOKI 七転び八起き "Fall down seven times...Stand up eight." Don't allow yourself to become discouraged by failure … All setbacks are temporary [18].

2008, The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, fifth edition, Oxford University Press. FALL down seven times, get up eight. Japanese proverb, with its first citation from the New York Times of 24 August 1997: 'I always told him, "Fall down seven times, get up eight,"' said John Kim, the bridegroom's father [17].

2009, Little Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, Oxford University Press. Fall seven times, stand up eight. Japanese proverb; compare If at first you don't succeed … [19].

2012, David Galef, Japanese Proverbs: Wit and Wisdom, Tuttle, no. 100, p. 118. Nana-korobu, ya-oki. Fall down seven times, get up eight [20].

2014, Alexander Bennett, Hagakure, page 101, maxim 127. It was customarily said at the time of Lord Katsushige: "You won't make a true man of service unless you have experienced being a rōnin seven times. Fall down seven times, and get up eight (nanakorobi-yaoki)." … It should be thought of as being like a self-righting doll [49].

2016, Naoki Higashida, translated by David Mitchell and K. A. Yoshida, Fall Down 7 Times, Get Up 8, Hodder & Stoughton. The proverb as a title [21].

Today. Two English forms compete. Fall down seven times, get up eight is Galef's and the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs's; Fall seven times, stand up eight is the Little Oxford's. The Internet Archive's full-text index finds the shorter in 1,012 items and the longer in 746, all years together: a count of items that print each string, not of use, and silent on which is commoner now. JMdict glosses the proverb not giving up; keeping at it until one succeeds; falling seven times, getting up eight, and adds the vicissitudes of life as a second sense [50].

A reading

The proverb is older than its dictionary entry says. The big dictionary's first citation of 1885 is only the first for the Chinese reading of the four characters; the saying is in print in 1702 and was on the lips of Saga's samurai before 1657, if Hagakure remembers them rightly. Its two senses are not an Edo one and a Meiji one. They run side by side in the earliest witnesses, the novel of 1702 and Hagakure of about 1716, and which one a speaker meant depended on who was down: the samurai tells himself to get up, and the courtesan, the rat and the friend tell someone else that luck will turn. The self-righting doll sits with both voices: in Hagakure it is the dismissed retainer's model, and in Kyōden's shooting gallery it is the prize for good fortune, a century before the daruma is named with it. The phrase shares three characters with a Chinese idiom that Japanese reads as writhing in pain, and I read the proverb as cut on it, the last verb turned from topple to rise; Bakin still used the four characters in both senses in one decade. Three things stand under them: the retainer dismissed seven times, the eighth rising, the doll with no feet.

References

  1. 山本常朝 述, 田代陳基 編, 山村魏 校『葉隠』上, 三教書院 (いてふ本), 1937, p. 59 (聞書第一). National Diet Library pid 1074360, scan 35. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1074360/1/35
  2. 『佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄』卷4, T48n2003_p0171b18–19, at CBETA. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T2003&juan=4
  3. 「七転八倒」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典・デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/七転八倒
  4. 高橋五郎『漢英対照いろは辞典』, 長尾景弼, 1888, p. 504. National Diet Library pid 902745, scan 260. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/902745/1/260
  5. F. Brinkley, F. Nanjō and Y. Iwasaki, An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary, Sanseidō, 1896, pp. 998 and 1071, s.vv. Nanakorobi-yaoki, Oki. National Diet Library pid 903159; Internet Archive cu31924082117288. https://archive.org/details/cu31924082117288
  6. 島田豊・島田弟丸『学生用和英字典』, 博文館, 1900. National Diet Library pid 870126, scan 396. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/870126/1/396
  7. James Curtis Hepburn, A Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary, 2nd ed., American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1872, s.v. korobi (the shelf copy's scan page 305).
  8. James Curtis Hepburn, A Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary, fourth edition, Z. P. Maruya, Tokyo, 1888, p. 832, s.v. korobi. Internet Archive japaneseenglishe00hepbuoft. https://archive.org/details/japaneseenglishe00hepbuoft
  9. Edward J. Reed, Japan: Its History, Traditions, and Religions, vol. 2, John Murray, London, 1880. Internet Archive japanitshistoryt02reed. https://archive.org/details/japanitshistoryt02reed
  10. Arthur Rose-Innes, Conversational Japanese for Beginners, Yokohama, 1920, s.v. korobu. Internet Archive conversationalja01roseiala. https://archive.org/details/conversationalja01roseiala
  11. Daniel Crump Buchanan, Japanese Proverbs and Sayings, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1965.
  12. Percy H. Whiting, The Five Great Problems of Salesmen and How to Solve Them, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1964. Internet Archive fivegreatproblem00whit (snippet view, Internet Archive).
  13. Clifton Burke, Kip Quotes, Taylor Publishing, 1974. Internet Archive kipquotes0000clif (snippet view, Internet Archive).
  14. David Galef, Even Monkeys Fall from Trees: The Wit and Wisdom of Japanese Proverbs, Tuttle, Tokyo and Rutland, 1987, no. 100.
  15. Bruce K. Grant, Korean Proverbs: Dragon Head, Snake Tail, Moth House, Salt Lake City, 1982. Internet Archive koreanproverbsdr0000gran (snippet view, Internet Archive).
  16. Lillian B. Rubin, The Transcendent Child, Basic Books, New York, 1996. Internet Archive transcendentchil0000rubi (snippet view, Internet Archive).
  17. The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 2008. Internet Archive oxforddictionary0000unse_d0n2 (snippet view, Internet Archive).
  18. Edward E. Trimnell, Tigers, Devils, and Fools: A Guide to Japanese Proverbs, Beechmont Crest Publishing, 2004.
  19. Little Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, Oxford University Press, 2009. Internet Archive littleoxforddict0000unse (snippet view, Internet Archive).
  20. David Galef, Japanese Proverbs: Wit and Wisdom, Tuttle, 2012, no. 100, p. 118.
  21. Naoki Higashida, tr. David Mitchell and K. A. Yoshida, Fall Down 7 Times, Get Up 8, Hodder & Stoughton, 2016. Internet Archive falldown7timesge0000naok (snippet view, Internet Archive).
  22. 都の錦『元禄大平記』巻四, 元禄15 (1702), in 国書刊行会 編『江戸時代文芸資料』第五, 1916, p. 31. National Diet Library pid 1884192, scan 162. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1884192/1/162
  23. 「身を捨ててこそ浮かぶ瀬もあれ」, 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/身を捨ててこそ浮かぶ瀬もあれ-636953
  24. 山本常朝 述『葉隠』, 丁酉社, 1906, scan 33 (snippet view, National Diet Library pid 758897). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/758897
  25. 「葉隠」・「鍋島勝茂」, デジタル大辞泉・改訂新版 世界大百科事典・日本大百科全書, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/葉隠
  26. 太田全斎『諺苑』, 寛政9 (1797); the 1944 edition (National Diet Library pid 1062658) and the 1966 春風館本 (pid 9545293), both served in Japan only; located by the library's full-text index. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1062658
  27. 十返舎一九『御徳用黄金艸鞋』, 寛政10 (1798). National Diet Library pid 9892863, scan 9. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/9892863/1/9
  28. 太田全斎『俚言集覧』, c. 1800, 1900 edition. National Diet Library pid 991570, scan 412. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/991570/1/412
  29. 「俚言集覧」・「諺苑」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版 日本国語大辞典・改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/俚言集覧
  30. 山東京伝『裡家算見通坐敷』, 享和3 (1803). National Diet Library pid 9892405, scan 15. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/9892405/1/15
  31. 山東京伝 作, 北尾重政 画『人間萬事吹矢的』, 享和3 (1803), in『日本名著全集 江戸文芸之部』第11巻 黄表紙廿五種, 1926. National Diet Library pid 1018497, scan 395. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1018497/1/395
  32. 曲亭馬琴『三七全伝南柯夢』, 東京稗史出版社, 1883 typeset. National Diet Library pid 878502, scan 26. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/878502/1/26
  33. 曲亭馬琴『南総里見八犬伝』第7輯, 1883 typeset. National Diet Library pid 879295, scan 17. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/879295/1/17
  34. 曲亭馬琴『稚枝鳩』, 共隆社, 1886 typeset. National Diet Library pid 879731, scan 9. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/879731/1/9
  35. 春亭三暁『十種香萩廼白露』, 文政4 (1821). National Diet Library pid 9893239, scan 13. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/9893239/1/13
  36. 為永春水『菊廼井草紙』, 文政7 (1824). National Diet Library pid 8942788, scan 18. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/8942788/1/18
  37. 鼻山人『風俗粋好伝』, 渓斎英泉 画, 文政8 (1825). National Diet Library pid 8942994, scan 17. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/8942994/1/17
  38. 坪内逍遙『当世書生気質』, 1886 printing. National Diet Library pid 887446, scan 171. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/887446/1/171
  39. 物集高見『日本大辞林』, 宮内省, 1894. National Diet Library pid 863449, scan 550. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/863449/1/550
  40. 経済雑誌社『日本社会事彙』下巻, 1902. National Diet Library pid 1805636, scan 344. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1805636/1/344
  41. 「達磨」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/達磨
  42. 藤井乙男『諺語大辞典』, 有朋堂, 1910. National Diet Library pid 862766, scan 256. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/862766/1/256
  43. 「七転び八起き」・「七転八起」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典・デジタル大辞泉・四字熟語を知る辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/七転び八起き-589160
  44. 武信由太郎 ed., Kenkyūsha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, Kenkyūsha, 1942 (the Harvard University Press printing), p. 1323, s.v. nanakorobi-yaoki.
  45. Alan W. Watts, The Way of Zen, Pantheon Books, New York, 1957. Internet Archive wayofzen0000alan (snippet view, Internet Archive).
  46. Rokuo Okada, Japanese Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, Japan Travel Bureau, Tokyo, 1958, pp. 114–115.
  47. 増田綱 ed., Kenkyūsha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, 4th ed., Kenkyūsha, 1974, p. 1184, s.v. nanakorobi-yaoki.
  48. William Scott Wilson, The Lone Samurai: The Life of Miyamoto Musashi, Kodansha International, 2004, p. 128.
  49. Alexander Bennett, translator, Hagakure: The Secret Wisdom of the Samurai, Tuttle, 2014, p. 101.
  50. JMdict, 「七転び八起き」・「七転八起」, at gokanji. https://new.gokanji.com/word/七転八起

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 · Claude Sonnet (Anthropic), 2026-09-15, citations — every claim tested at its address; most resolve; the differing readings are one finding, right on the number and wrong on the cause — the index reports more than it lists; the rest not openable, stated to the check rather than shown, most leaves re-opened by hand from the OCR text, all verbatim

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 七転八起 (nana korobi ya oki)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/nana-korobi-ya-oki.