Fine Japanese Calligraphy

The Art of Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase

0
Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, PayPal accepted
Home › Library › Philology › The Hawk with Talent Hides its Talons

能ある鷹は爪を隠す nō aru taka wa tsume o kakusu The Hawk with Talent Hides its Talons

This is a philological study of the Japanese proverb 能ある鷹は爪を隠す (nō aru taka wa tsume o kakusu). It spans five centuries, from an idiom of 1472 and the oldest proverb list in Japanese to the dictionaries of today, and examines the hawk and its cat twin, the modest and the braggart in one breath, and the Chinese images set beside it.

Japanese Scroll of The Hawk with Talent Hides its Talons (nō aru taka wa tsume wo kakusu) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
The Hawk with Talent Hides its Talons (nō aru taka wa tsume wo kakusu)

The Hawk with Talent Hides its Talons (nō aru taka wa tsume wo kakusu) on a traditional Japanese Scroll by Master Eri Takase.

View Scroll ›

Abstract

能ある鷹は爪を隠す, the hawk with skill hides its talons, is a native Japanese proverb of one sense held steady for four centuries: real ability does not display itself. Its oldest witness is the oldest proverb list in Japanese, a six-leaf manuscript of the 1580s and 90s known from a copy of 1773 whose transcription was printed in 1929, and the idiom 爪を隠す is older still, in a commentary of 1472, in another sense. The cat form, 鼠とる猫は爪をかくす, is the same proverb with a second animal, and the Chinese images the dictionaries set beside it are pairings, not origins. The modern dictionary keeps both edges, praise of the modest and reproach of the braggart, and reads 隠す as not threatening rather than concealing; in English the hawk is a falcon in 1880 and Brinkley's clever hawk in 1896, and the equation still waters run deep has stood beside it since 1909.

Overview

The sense. One sense, held steady for four centuries: real ability does not display itself [1][2]. The witnesses differ only in what they do with it. The 1734 commentary makes it modesty about knowledge [3]; 源内 makes it a warning that the quiet ones are the swindlers [4]; 篤胤 objects that in a blind world the quiet hawk is taken for a dead one [5]; 馬琴 makes it praise [6]. The modern dictionary keeps both edges, praise of the modest and reproach of the braggart, and reads 隠す as not threatening rather than concealing [1].

The words. 能, nō, is ability, skill; the dictionaries gloss the subject as 本当に力のあるもの, one who really has the power [1]. 鷹, taka, is the hawk of falconry, the hunting bird of the court and the warrior houses, the bird of another proverb that does not pick at the ear of grain even when starving. 爪, tsume, is the talons. 隠す, kakusu, is to hide, and the ことわざを知る辞典 is exact about what the hiding is: 鷹が「爪を隠す」というのは、爪がまったく見えないように隠すということではなく、むやみに爪を立てて相手を威嚇しない意です, not that the talons cannot be seen, but that the bird does not raise them needlessly to threaten [1]. The oldest witness writes the line without を, 爪かくす [2]; a novel of 1841 writes 能有鷹 [7]; the 1910 dictionary prints 匿ス for the same word [8]. デジタル大辞泉 warns that 脳ある鷹, the hawk with brains, is an error, and the error is common enough to be listed [1]. The same proverb has a second animal: 鼠とる猫は爪をかくす, the cat that catches mice hides its claws, and the dictionaries have cross-referenced the two for three hundred years [8].

The proverb in English. Hepburn's dictionary of 1872 lists the cat form, unglossed, and has nothing under the hawk; his seventh edition of 1903 marks the cat a proverb and still has no hawk [9][10]. The hawk is in English by 1880, as a clever falcon hides his talons in a naval architect's list of popular proverbs [11]; it is spoken in a translated play of 1894 [12]; and Brinkley's dictionary of 1896 gives it under 能 with the kanji, a clever hawk conceals its talons, eleven years before the first of the Meiji pocket dictionaries [13]. Those dictionaries, 1907 to 1918, render it six ways [14][15][16][17][18][19]; Kenkyūsha in 1942 and 1983 gives the English equation alone, still waters run deep [20][21]; the proverb books carry it from Okada in 1958 and Buchanan in 1965 [22][23]; Galef in 1987 restates the equations of 1909 and 1910 [24]; Zona in 1996 changes the bird [25]; Trimnell in 2004 gives the skillful hawk [26].

The historical record

1472. 一条兼良, 花鳥余情, a commentary on the Tale of Genji. The idiom before the proverb, in another sense: explaining why the young 薫 will not take up the koto, the commentator writes 爪かくすははちたる心也, to hide one's nails is a gesture of shame [27]. The 日国 gives this as the first attestation of 爪を隠す [28]; it shows the phrase older than the proverb and meaning something else.

The 1580s to 1590s. 北條氏直時分諺留, Proverbs noted down from the time of Hōjō Ujinao, a six-leaf manuscript. The oldest collection of proverbs in Japanese, a list of sayings current in the last years of the Odawara Hōjō, whose lord died in 1591. Among them: 能ある鷹は爪かくす, standing between 人を思ふは身を思ふ人をにくむは身をにくむ, to care for another is to care for oneself, to hate another is to hate oneself, and 慾のくまたか爪をさく, the greedy eagle tears its own talons: the able hawk that hides its talons and the greedy one that ruins them, side by side as one lesson. The manuscript itself is not digitized; 藤井乙男 traced the 1773 copy to the University of Tokyo library, printed his transcription in 1929, and the line is read there [2]. The 日国 dates the list 1599頃 [1].

1638. 毛吹草, the first printed proverb collection. The cat form: 鼠とる猫は爪をかくす. From here to the end of the eighteenth century the prose writers reach for the cat as often as the hawk. The list is read in 藤井's 1929 excerpt [2].

1734. 最明寺殿教訓百首, a moral commentary on a hundred teaching poems. The hawk, called a proverb outright: ことわざにも能ある鷹は爪をかくすといへり, as the proverb too says, the hawk with skill hides its talons, glossing a poem against the man who wears a knowing face; the commentary reads the proverb as modesty about knowledge, carrying even what you know well as if you did not [3].

1777. 平賀源内, 放屁論後篇. The cat, turned against the respectable: 世間の爲に骨を折れば世上で山師と譏れども。鼠捕る猫は爪をかくす。我よりおとなしく人物臭き面な奴に。却て山師はいくらも有り, break your back for the world and the world calls you a swindler; but the cat that catches mice hides its claws, and among the meek, respectable-looking men there are swindlers enough [4].

1811. 平田篤胤, 志都能石屋. The nativist scholar quotes 源内's thought and turns the proverb inside out: 今時世上ニ目ガ無ケレバ。能アル鷹モ。オトナシウ爪ヲ秘セバ。腐鳥カト思ツテ。タハケドモガ。茶ニシタリ馬鹿ニスル故。謙退辞譲ハ間ニ合ハズ, in a world without eyes, if the able hawk keeps its talons quietly hidden, fools take it for a rotten bird and mock it, so modesty and deference do not serve, and a little big talk is needed [5].

1814 onward. 曲亭馬琴, 南総里見八犬伝. A warrior declines to boast of subduing a bull, and the narrator gives him the proverb as a 鄙語, a countryman's saying, in praise: 能ある鷹は爪を隠す。といふ鄙語も, with the reading たか・つめ・かく written beside the characters [6].

1841. 為永春水, 春色梅美婦禰. 能有鷹は爪を隠すとむかしから言通り, as they have said since old times [7].

1910. 藤井乙男, 諺語大辞典. The cat is the main entry and the hawk the cross-reference. Under the cat he assembles the Chinese images the Meiji dictionaries name, and closes with a Dutch proverb: When cats are mousing they won't mew. Under the hawk: 【能アル鷹ハ爪ヲ匿ス】鼠トル猫、能アル猫ハともいふ, with the 1590s list as its source and 老子's 知者不言、言者不知 as its parallel [8].

The dictionaries today. The 日国: 本当に力のあるものは、みだりにそれをひけらかすようなことはしないというたとえ, a figure for the truly capable not flaunting it, with the 1590s list as first attestation. The ことわざを知る辞典 adds the reverse edge: 裏を返すと、たいした能力のない者にかぎって … 力を誇示したりする, turned over, it says that only those of little ability show off their strength, so the proverb praises the modest and criticizes the braggart in one breath. Its examples run from 中里介山's 大菩薩峠 to 開高健 in 1976 [1].

What is not a source. No Chinese source is claimed for the sentence, and none is needed. What the Meiji dictionaries set beside it is a Chinese image, a maxim of war from the 淮南子: 夫飛鳥之摯也，俯其首；猛獸之攫也，匿其爪；虎豹不外其爪，而噬不見齒, when a bird of prey strikes it lowers its head; when a beast seizes it hides its claws; the tiger and leopard do not show their claws, and what bites does not show its teeth [29]. A Han moral collection, the 說苑, has the gentleman guards his mouth, the peacock its feathers, the tiger its claws [30]. 老子's those who know do not speak [31] and the good merchant who hides his stock as if he had none from the 史記 [32] are the parallels the dictionaries of 1901 reach for. These are pairings, not origins; the Japanese proverb is a Japanese sentence about a hawk. The Meiji claim that 能 was originally the name of a bear-like beast is a folk etymology and is recorded here as one.

The proverb in English

1872 and 1903. Hepburn. Under nezumi, the rat: the cat form, nezumi toru neko wa tsume wo kakusu, unglossed [9]. The seventh edition of 1903 prints the same line and marks it a proverb, and neither edition has the hawk [10].

1880. Sir Edward J. Reed, Japan: Its History, Traditions, and Religions, volume 2, chapter V, Popular Proverbs and Phrases, page 109. In a list of proverbs, between the hand goes to the itching spot and when the tiger is dead, spare his skin: A clever falcon hides his talons [11]. The earliest English rendering this history cites, twenty-seven years before the first Meiji pocket dictionary; the bird is a falcon, and it keeps its talons.

1894. 福地源一郎, Ōkubo Hikozayemon, a drama, in Kimura Kinnosuke's English, The Japan Evangelist, volume I number 3, February 1894, page 164. A retainer declines to boast of his dancing: Wise hawks conceal their claws, so I do not boast of my ability like you [12]. The proverb as a line of English dialogue, before any dictionary gives the hawk.

1896. Frank Brinkley, An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary, page 1036. Under 能, after the virtue of a medicine: Nō aru taka wa tsume wo kakusu, 能アル鷹ハ爪ヲ隱ス, a clever hawk conceals its talons, marked as a proverb [13]. The first bilingual dictionary to carry the hawk, and the rendering the 和英大辞林 repeats in 1909.

1896 and 1906. Clay MacCauley, An Introductory Course in Japanese, the twentieth proverb. A lesson text on the cat: Nezumi toru neko wa tsume wo kakusu. The rat-catching cat hides her claws, with a dialogue in which a student objects that a rat flees at the sight of a cat, so the cat has no need to hide its claws; the 1906 edition keeps the lesson [33][34]. Hossfeld's Japanese Grammar of 1904 sets the cat as an exercise sentence, unglossed [35].

1907. ロイド, 和英新辞典. If you cannot bite, never show your teeth [14].

1908. 和田垣. A clever person conceals his skill [15].

1909 and 1911. 井上十吉. A sagacious hawk hides his claws [16][36].

1909. 和英大辞林. A clever hawk conceals its talons; still waters run deep [17]. The first half is Brinkley's 1896 rendering word for word.

1910. 渡部, 和英引用辞典. Who knows most, says least, marked as an Italian proverb [18].

1918. 武信由太郎, 武信和英大辞典, page 1492. Under nō 能, sense ①, the proverb as an example: 能ある鷹は爪を隱す. Still waters run deep [37].

1918. 斎藤秀三郎. Filed under still waters run deep [19].

1928. 竹原常太, スタンダード和英大辭典, page 865. Under nō 能: 能ある鷹は爪を隱す Cats hide their claws [38].

1916. Nakaba Yamada, Ghenkō: The Mongol Invasion of Japan, page 75. On Kublai Khan biding his time before the invasion: "A sagacious hawk hides his claws," says an Oriental sage [39]. 井上's rendering of 1909, in an English history by a Japanese author, and the proverb credited to a sage.

1924. William Elliot Griffis, Proverbs of Japan, the Japan Society, page 37. The skilled know that "A clever falcon hides its claws" (and so does the man who is like this bird of prey) [40]. Reed's falcon of 1880, forty-four years on.

1942. Kenkyūsha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, page 1376. Under 能, first sense, beside 能を隱す conceal one's ability: 能ある鷹は爪を隱す. Still waters run deep [20]. The English equation alone; the hawk is not translated.

1958. Rokuo Okada, Japanese Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, Japan Travel Bureau, page 120. Nō aru taka wa tsume o kakusu. A capable hawk hides its talons. A man of real ability does not show off his talents. "Still waters run deep." "Waters that are deep do not bubble." "Silent men, like still waters, are deep and dangerous." [22]. The earliest English proverb book this history cites, seven years before Buchanan.

1965. Daniel Crump Buchanan, Japanese Proverbs and Sayings, page 77, in the chapter Discipline. Nō aru taka tsume wo kakusu: "The wise hawk conceals his talons." That is, a truly wise person does not make show of his resources and ability. English parallels: Who knows most says least. Still waters run deep. Cats hide their claws [23]. His romaji drops the は, and his third parallel is the cat, the one English rendering that keeps the two animals together. Two of his three parallels are English proverbs with histories of their own: still waters run deep is in English from about 1390 [41], and cats hide their claws from Florio in 1591, Dekker in 1609 and Fuller in 1732 [42][43][44].

1968. Charles Corwin, A Dictionary of Japanese and English Idiomatic Equivalents, page 185. Under nōryoku: nō aru taka wa tsume o kakusu, 能あるたかはつめを隠す, marked a proverb, A talented person knows how to be modest [45]. No bird in the English.

1983. Kenkyūsha's New Collegiate Japanese-English Dictionary, third edition, page 974. Under のう: 能あるたかはつめを隠す. A talented person doesn't need to show off, and as the proverb, Still waters run deep [21].

1987. David Galef, Even Monkeys Fall from Trees, number 72, page 158. A clever hawk hides its claws, and in his list of equivalents He who knows most speaks least: 1909 and 1910 restated [24].

1996. Guy Zona, Even Withered Trees Give Prosperity to the Mountain, page 47. It is a wise falcon that hides its claws, the one rendering to change the bird [25].

1989. William Reed, Shodo: The Art of Coordinating Mind, Body and Brush, page 38. A calligrapher's book, in a chapter on the nature of talent: It is the hawk, not the cormorant bird which represents the true nature of talent. The hawk conceals its talons until the moment they are needed, and is ready to use them any time. Falconry is a sport that was cultivated by the elite members of the samurai warrior class. In it they found an ingenious example for their own use of the sword [46]. The proverb read as a sheathed sword.

2002. Jeff Garrison and Kayoko Kimiya, Kodansha's Dictionary of Basic Japanese Idioms, entry 456. 能ある鷹は爪を隠す, a powerful hawk hides its talons, glossed an able person does not show off his skills; tell not all you know, all you have, or all you can do, with the example 能ある鷹は爪を隠す、ちょっとピアノが弾けるからって自慢するもんじゃないよ, Don't toot your horn because you can play the piano a little [47].

2004. Edward Trimnell, Tigers, Devils, and Fools, page 109. The skillful hawk hides its claws. A person of true ability doesn't flaunt his skills [26].

Today. JMdict: a wise man keeps some of his talents in reserve; one shouldn't show off; the person who knows most often says least; a skilled hawk hides its talons [48]. The house title, The Hawk with Talent Hides its Talons, is the literal of 1909 with 能 as talent, and it is the best of the set: talent keeps 能, talons keeps 爪, and the English has stood still for a century. What a rendering must keep is the bird and the restraint; the proverb is about not threatening, not about concealment.

A reading

The two English equations that circulate, a clever hawk conceals its talons; still waters run deep and who knows most, says least, are the tradition's own, from 1909 and 1910, and the English hawk is older than the dictionaries that carry the equations: Reed's falcon of 1880, Brinkley's hawk of 1896. The proverb has a long pedigree: it stands in the oldest proverb list in Japanese, in 源内, 篤胤 and 馬琴, and carries a Chinese image the dictionaries have named for two centuries. The cat and the hawk are one proverb with two animals. My own reading: the proverb is about not threatening, not about hiding, as the ことわざを知る辞典 has it; and 篤胤's objection, that in a world without eyes the quiet hawk is taken for a dead one, is the honest limit of the advice.

References

  1. 「能ある鷹は爪を隠す」, 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/能ある鷹は爪を隠す-596149
  2. 藤井乙男『諺の研究』, 1929, pp. 232 and 243, National Diet Library pid 1452761, scans 123 and 131. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1452761/1/123
  3. 中村三近子 校『最明寺殿教訓百首』, 1734, National Diet Library pid 2554678, scan 19. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2554678/1/19
  4. 平賀源内『放屁論後篇』, in 『風来山人傑作集』, 1909, National Diet Library pid 1882565, scan 21. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1882565/1/21
  5. 平田篤胤『志都能石屋』, National Diet Library pid 2557351, scan 9. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2557351/1/9
  6. 曲亭馬琴『南総里見八犬伝』, National Diet Library pid 2551626, scan 13. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2551626/1/13
  7. 為永春水『春色梅美婦禰』, 1841, National Diet Library pid 10303582, a hit in the library's full-text search; no scan is given. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/10303582
  8. 藤井乙男『諺語大辞典』, 1910, pp. 771 and 777, National Diet Library pid 862766, scans 402 and 405. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/862766/1/405
  9. Hepburn, dictionary of 1872, under NEDZUMI, National Diet Library pid 993689, scan 197. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/993689/1/197
  10. Hepburn, A Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary, seventh edition, Maruya, Tokyo, 1903, s.v. Nezumi, leaf 491 of the archive.org copy. https://archive.org/details/ajapaneseenglis00hepbgoog/page/n491
  11. Edward J. Reed, Japan: Its History, Traditions, and Religions, with the Narrative of a Visit in 1879, vol. 2, John Murray, London, 1880, chapter V, p. 109. https://archive.org/details/japanitshistoryt02reed/page/n129
  12. 福地源一郎, Ōkubo Hikozayemon, A Drama, translated by Kimura Kinnosuke, The Japan Evangelist vol. I no. 3, Yokohama, February 1894, p. 164. https://archive.org/details/japanevangelist0001unse/page/n192
  13. F. Brinkley, F. Nanjō and Y. Iwasaki, An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary, Sanseidō, Tokyo, 1896, p. 1036, s.v. Nō 能 (the shelved copy). https://archive.org/details/cu31924082117288
  14. ロイド『和英新辞典』, 1907, National Diet Library pid 903157, scan 694. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/903157/1/694
  15. 和田垣『和英新辞典』, 1908, National Diet Library pid 903158, scan 230. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/903158/1/230
  16. 井上十吉, 1909, National Diet Library pid 1869465, scan 578. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1869465/1/578
  17. 『和英大辞林』, 1909, National Diet Library pid 870204, scan 470. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/870204/1/470
  18. 渡部『和英引用辞典』, 1910, National Diet Library pid 870190, scan 77. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/870190/1/77
  19. 斎藤秀三郎, 1918, National Diet Library pid 1681530, scan 762. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1681530/1/762
  20. Kenkyūsha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, American edition, Harvard University Press, 1942, p. 1376, s.v. nō 能 (the shelved copy).
  21. Kenkyūsha's New Collegiate Japanese-English Dictionary, third edition, Kenkyūsha, Tokyo, 1983, p. 974, s.v. のう (the shelved copy).
  22. Rokuo Okada, Japanese Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, Japan Travel Bureau, Tokyo, 1958, p. 120 (the shelved copy).
  23. Daniel Crump Buchanan, Japanese Proverbs and Sayings, University of Oklahoma Press, 1965, p. 77.
  24. David Galef, Even Monkeys Fall from Trees, Tuttle, 1987, no. 72, p. 158.
  25. Guy Zona, Even Withered Trees Give Prosperity to the Mountain, Simon and Schuster, 1996, p. 47.
  26. Edward Trimnell, Tigers, Devils, and Fools, Beechmont Crest, 2004, p. 109.
  27. 一条兼良『花鳥余情』, 1472, manuscript, National Diet Library pid 2551185, scan 57. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2551185/1/57
  28. 「爪を隠す」, デジタル大辞泉 · 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/爪を隠す-572559
  29. 『淮南子』兵略訓, at the Chinese Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/淮南子/兵略訓
  30. 劉向『說苑』雜言, at the Chinese Text Project. https://ctext.org/shuo-yuan/za-yan/zh
  31. 『老子』道德經, at the Chinese Text Project. https://ctext.org/dao-de-jing/zh
  32. 司馬遷『史記』卷六十三, at the Chinese Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/史記/卷063
  33. Clay MacCauley, An Introductory Course in Japanese, Kelly and Walsh, Yokohama, 1896, the twentieth proverb, leaf 372 of the archive.org copy. https://archive.org/details/anintroductoryc00maccgoog/page/n372
  34. Clay MacCauley, An Introductory Course in Japanese, Kelly and Walsh, Yokohama, 1906, the twentieth proverb (the archive.org text layer, line 18731). https://archive.org/details/cu31924077073884
  35. Henry J. Weintz, Hossfeld's Japanese Grammar, Hirschfeld, London, 1904, Exercise 7, sentence 6, leaf 140 of the archive.org copy. https://archive.org/details/hossfeldsjapanes02weinuoft/page/n140
  36. 井上十吉, 1911, National Diet Library pid 870153, scan 580. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/870153/1/580
  37. 武信由太郎 編『武信和英大辞典』, 研究社, 1918, p. 1492, s.v. nō. National Diet Library pid 925665, scan 751. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/925665/1/751
  38. 竹原常太『スタンダード和英大辭典』, 宝文館, 1928, p. 865, s.v. nō. National Diet Library pid 1126806, scan 441. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1126806/1/441
  39. Nakaba Yamada, Ghenkō: The Mongol Invasion of Japan, Smith, Elder, London, 1916, p. 75. https://archive.org/details/ghenkomongolinva00yamarich/page/n108
  40. William Elliot Griffis, Proverbs of Japan: A Little Picture of the Japanese Philosophy of Life as Mirrored in Their Proverbs, Japan Society, New York, 1924, p. 37. https://archive.org/details/proverbsofjapanl00grif/page/n40
  41. Bartlett Jere Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases from English Writings Mainly Before 1500, Belknap Press, 1968, W70, p. 628 (the shelved copy).
  42. Burton Stevenson, The Home Book of Quotations, fourth edition, Blakiston, 1944, p. 223, s.v. Cat, quoting Florio, Second Fruites, 1591, and Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732, no. 1072 (the shelved copy).
  43. F. P. Wilson, The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs, third edition, Oxford University Press, 1970, p. 111, s.v. Cats hide their claws, quoting Dekker, Raven's Almanac, 1609 (the shelved copy).
  44. G. L. Apperson, English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases: A Historical Dictionary, Dent, 1929, p. 100, Cat 17 (the shelved copy).
  45. Charles Corwin, A Dictionary of Japanese and English Idiomatic Equivalents, Kodansha International, 1968, p. 185, s.v. nōryoku (the shelved copy).
  46. William Reed, Shodo: The Art of Coordinating Mind, Body and Brush, Japan Publications, 1989, p. 38 (the shelved copy).
  47. Jeff Garrison and Kayoko Kimiya, Kodansha's Dictionary of Basic Japanese Idioms, Kodansha International, 2002, entry 456 (the shelved copy).
  48. JMdict, 「能ある鷹は爪を隠す」, at Weblio 英和・和英辞典. https://ejje.weblio.jp/content/能ある鷹は爪を隠す

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), 2026-09-05, citations · gpt-6-astra (OpenAI), 2026-09-05, citations