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能ある鷹は爪を隠す nō aru taka wa tsume o kakusu 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 skill hides its talons, says that real ability does not display itself. A chronicle of the Odawara Hōjō printed in 1641 already calls it a popular saying of unknown source. This study follows the hawk and its cat twin, the Chinese images set beside it, and its German and English from 1874.

Japanese Scroll of The Hawk with Talent Hides its Talons (nō aru taka wa tsume o kakusu) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
The Hawk with Talent Hides its Talons能ある鷹は爪を隠すnō aru taka wa tsume o kakusu

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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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 dated witness is a chronicle of the Odawara Hōjō printed in 1641, which already calls it a popular saying of unknown source; a list headed proverbs of the time of Hōjō Ujinao, which the 日国 dates about 1599 and cites first, survives only in a copy of 1790 made from one of 1773, 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 Europe the hawk is a German kluger Falke in 1874, an English falcon in 1876 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 1641 chronicle makes it a warrior's valor kept for the battlefield [3]; the 1734 commentary makes it modesty about knowledge [4]; 源内 makes it a warning that the quiet ones are the swindlers [5]; 篤胤 objects that in a blind world the quiet hawk is taken for a dead one [6]; 馬琴 makes it praise [7]. 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 Hōjō list writes the line without を, 爪かくす [2]; the chronicle of 1641 and a novel of 1841 write 能有鷹 [3][8]; the 1910 dictionary prints 匿ス for the same word [9]. 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 藤井's dictionary of 1910 gives each as the other's variant [9].

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 [10][11]. The hawk is in a German list of Japanese proverbs printed in Tokyo in 1874, as Ein kluger Falke verbirgt die Faenge [12], and in English by 1876, as the falcon hides her claws in a missionary's letter from Japan [13]; a clever falcon hides his talons, in a naval architect's book of 1880, is the German list's line in the German list's order [14]; it is spoken in a translated play of 1894 [15]; 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 [16]. Those dictionaries, 1907 to 1918, render it six ways [17][18][19][20][21][22]; Kenkyūsha in 1942 and 1983 gives the English equation alone, still waters run deep [23][24]; the proverb books carry it from Griffis in 1924, Okada in 1958 and Buchanan in 1965 [25][26][27]; Galef in 1987 restates the equations of 1909 and 1910 [28]; Zona in 1996 brings back the falcon [29]; Trimnell in 2004 gives the skillful hawk [30].

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 [31]. The 日国 gives this as the first attestation of 爪を隠す [32]; it shows the phrase older than the proverb and meaning something else.

The 1580s to 1590s, in a copy of 1790. 北條氏直時代諺留, Proverbs of the time of Hōjō Ujinao, a six-leaf list. A list of sayings headed 北條氏直ノ時分ノ諺, the proverbs of Hōjō Ujinao's time, the last lord of the Odawara Hōjō, who 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 list is known from one manuscript, which 藤井乙男 found at the University of Tokyo library, feared burned in 1923, and printed in 1929 [2]. Its two colophons say what that manuscript is: a copy made in 1790 from the copy 多賀常政 made in 1773, and 多賀 writes that the original, 甚タ古雅, very old and elegant, was said to be in the hand of 蓬庵, the father of 物茂卿, that is, of Ogyū Sorai [2]. Sorai's father 方庵 was born in 1626 [33]. If the report is right, the list was written down no earlier than the middle of the seventeenth century, of sayings its title places half a century before, and its date rests on its title. The 日国 dates it 1599頃 and cites it first [1]. It is not the oldest collection of proverbs in Japan: 源為憲's 世俗諺文 of 1007 is one, of sayings with their Chinese sources [34].

1638. 毛吹草, the earliest collection of proverbs of the Edo period. The cat form: 鼠とる猫は爪をかくす. From here on the prose writers use both animals, as the entries below show. The list is read in 藤井's 1929 excerpt [2].

1641. 北条五代記, Records of the Five Generations of the Hōjō. Tales of the Odawara Hōjō, printed in 1641 and drawn from the memoirs of 三浦浄心 (1565–1644), who had served 北条氏政 [3][35]. Telling how the Takeda retainers, loud in their boasts, deserted their lord without firing a shot and were put to death by 信長, the writer turns to the proverb: されば俗語に。能有鷹は爪をかくすと云事思ひ合せり。但古事あるやらん是をしらず, so the popular saying that the able hawk hides its talons comes to mind; whether an old story lies behind it I do not know. He reads it for a warrior: the hawk takes birds by its talons, a samurai's talons are his valor, and one who shows them off away from the battlefield is a hawk without ability. And of 北条氏康, who credited his victories to Hachiman and to his men and not to his own strength: 此等の人をこそ能ある鷹爪をかくすといひつべけれ, it is men like these who should be called the able hawk that hides its talons [3]. It is the oldest witness of the hawk with a printed date that the National Diet Library's full text holds, and it already names the line a 俗語 of unknown source.

1734. 最明寺殿教訓百首, a moral commentary on a hundred teaching poems. The hawk, named a ことわざ: 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 [4].

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 [5].

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 [6].

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 [7].

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 [8].

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 Hōjō list as its source and 老子's 知者不言、言者不知 as its parallel [9].

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 Hōjō 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 [36]. A Han moral collection, the 說苑, has the gentleman guards his mouth, the peacock its feathers, the tiger its claws [37]. 老子's those who know do not speak [38] and the good merchant who hides his stock as if he had none from the 史記 [39] 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 [10]. The seventh edition of 1903 prints the same line and marks it a proverb, and neither edition has the hawk [11].

1874. A. von Knobloch, Japanische Sprichwörter und Redensarten, Mittheilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens, Heft 4, dated January 1874, page 26. A numbered list of Japanese proverbs in romaji with German renderings, printed in Tokyo and signed A. v. Knobloch. Number 122: No aru taka wa tsumé wo kakuszu, Ein kluger Falke verbirgt die Faenge, between Die Hand reicht an die juckende Stelle and Den Tiger toedten, das Fell schonen [12]. The hawk's first appearance in a European language that this history has found.

1876. Flora Best Harris, Fair Weather and Foul in a "Far Country", The Ladies' Repository, Cincinnati, May 1876, page 440. A Methodist missionary's letter from Japan on its songs and proverbs, written at the turn of the year 1875 to 1876: There are some pithy, common sayings, for which I do not remember an equivalent in our own tongue. Such, for instance, as, "The falcon hides her claws," the purport of which is, that the shrewd falcon, concealing her powers, is like unto a wise man, yea, even unto a doctor of divinity, who modestly veils his "much learning" from sight [13]. The earliest English rendering this history cites.

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 [14]. The list is Knobloch's of 1874 in English: from like seeking for fish on a tree to to hide the sword with a smile, Reed gives Knobloch's numbers 108 to 125 in Knobloch's order with one left out, down to his glosses, Der Teufel im Herzen (das boese Gewissen) becoming a devil in the heart (an evil conscience); his kluger Falke is Reed's clever falcon [12].

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 [15]. 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 [16]. 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 [40][41]. Hossfeld's Japanese Grammar of 1904 sets the cat as an exercise sentence, unglossed [42].

1907. ロイド, 和英新辞典. If you cannot bite, never show your teeth [17].

1908. 和田垣. A clever person conceals his skill [18].

1909 and 1911. 井上十吉. A sagacious hawk hides his claws [19][43].

1909. 和英大辞林. A clever hawk conceals its talons; still waters run deep [20]. 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 [21].

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 [44]. 井上's rendering of 1909, in an English history by a Japanese author, and the proverb credited to a sage.

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 [45].

1918. 斎藤秀三郎. Filed under still waters run deep [22].

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) [25]. Reed's falcon of 1880, forty-four years on.

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 [46].

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 [23]. 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." [26]. 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 [27]. His romaji drops the は, and his third parallel is the cat, as 竹原's dictionary had given it for the hawk in 1928. Two of his three parallels are English proverbs with histories of their own: still waters run deep is in English from about 1390 [47], and cats hide their claws from Florio in 1591, Dekker in 1609 and Fuller in 1732 [48][49][50].

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 [51]. 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 [24].

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 [28].

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 [52]. The proverb read as a sheathed sword.

1996. Guy Zona, Even Withered Trees Give Prosperity to the Mountain, page 47. It is a wise falcon that hides its claws, the falcon of 1876, 1880 and 1924 again [29].

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 [53].

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 [30].

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 [54]. 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: Harris's falcon of 1876, Reed's of 1880 by way of a German list of 1874, Brinkley's hawk of 1896. The proverb has a long pedigree: it is a Hōjō chronicle's popular saying in 1641, in 源内, 篤胤 and 馬琴, and carries a Chinese image the dictionaries have named for more than a century. Its two oldest witnesses both come from the Odawara Hōjō, a chronicle by a man who had served them and a list of sayings of their last lord's time; that is where the record puts it, and no source says where it began. 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』, 更生閣, 1929: pp. 229–238, 北條氏直時代諺留, the transcription, with 藤井's note on the manuscript (p. 229, scan 121), the line 能ある鷹は爪かくす (p. 232, scan 123) and the two colophons, 安永二 (1773) 多賀常政 and 寛政二 (1790) (p. 238, scan 126); p. 240 (scan 127), which names 毛吹草 the earliest collection of proverbs of the Edo period; p. 243 (scan 131), the 毛吹草 excerpt. National Diet Library pid 1452761. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1452761/1/126
  3. 『北条五代記』, 寛永18 (1641), 巻第六, 上杉輝虎武田信玄小田原へ働事, 筑波大学附属図書館 copy, canvases 217 (right page) and 218 (right page). 国書データベース, doi 10.20730/100422573. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100422573 · the work and its printings (寛永18, 万治2), 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/work/56713 · 「北条五代記」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/北条五代記-1205345
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. Hepburn, dictionary of 1872, under NEDZUMI, National Diet Library pid 993689, scan 197. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/993689/1/197
  11. 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
  12. A. v. Knobloch, Japanische Sprichwörter und Redensarten, Mittheilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens, Band I, Heft 4 (January 1874), Yokohama and Tokyo, pp. 23–26, no. 122 on p. 26. https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_8TFOAAAAYAAJ/page/n99
  13. Flora Best Harris, Fair Weather and Foul in a "Far Country", The Ladies' Repository 36, Cincinnati, May 1876, pp. 439–441, the falcon on p. 440. https://archive.org/details/sim_ladies-repository-a-monthly-periodical-devoted-to_1876-05_36_25/page/n55
  14. 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
  15. 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
  16. 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
  17. 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
  18. 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
  19. 井上十吉, 1909, National Diet Library pid 1869465, scan 578. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1869465/1/578
  20. 『和英大辞林』, 1909, National Diet Library pid 870204, scan 470. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/870204/1/470
  21. 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
  22. 斎藤秀三郎, 1918, National Diet Library pid 1681530, scan 762. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1681530/1/762
  23. Kenkyūsha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, American edition, Harvard University Press, 1942, p. 1376, s.v. nō 能 (the shelved copy).
  24. Kenkyūsha's New Collegiate Japanese-English Dictionary, third edition, Kenkyūsha, Tokyo, 1983, p. 974, s.v. のう (the shelved copy).
  25. 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
  26. Rokuo Okada, Japanese Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, Japan Travel Bureau, Tokyo, 1958, p. 120 (the shelved copy).
  27. Daniel Crump Buchanan, Japanese Proverbs and Sayings, University of Oklahoma Press, 1965, p. 77.
  28. David Galef, Even Monkeys Fall from Trees, Tuttle, 1987, no. 72, p. 158.
  29. Guy Zona, Even Withered Trees Give Prosperity to the Mountain, Simon and Schuster, 1996, p. 47.
  30. Edward Trimnell, Tigers, Devils, and Fools, Beechmont Crest, 2004, p. 109.
  31. 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
  32. 「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
  33. 「荻生方庵」, デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/荻生方庵-1062703
  34. 「世俗諺文」, デジタル大辞泉 and 百科事典マイペディア, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/世俗諺文-846760
  35. 「三浦浄心」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/三浦浄心-1111940
  36. 『淮南子』兵略訓, at the Chinese Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/淮南子/兵略訓
  37. 劉向『說苑』雜言, at the Chinese Text Project. https://ctext.org/shuo-yuan/za-yan/zh
  38. 『老子』道德經, at the Chinese Text Project. https://ctext.org/dao-de-jing/zh
  39. 司馬遷『史記』卷六十三, at the Chinese Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/史記/卷063
  40. 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
  41. 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
  42. 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
  43. 井上十吉, 1911, National Diet Library pid 870153, scan 580. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/870153/1/580
  44. Nakaba Yamada, Ghenkō: The Mongol Invasion of Japan, Smith, Elder, London, 1916, p. 75. https://archive.org/details/ghenkomongolinva00yamarich/page/n108
  45. 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
  46. 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
  47. Bartlett Jere Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases from English Writings Mainly Before 1500, Belknap Press, 1968, W70, p. 628 (the shelved copy).
  48. 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).
  49. 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).
  50. G. L. Apperson, English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases: A Historical Dictionary, Dent, 1929, p. 100, Cat 17 (the shelved copy).
  51. Charles Corwin, A Dictionary of Japanese and English Idiomatic Equivalents, Kodansha International, 1968, p. 185, s.v. nōryoku (the shelved copy).
  52. William Reed, Shodo: The Art of Coordinating Mind, Body and Brush, Japan Publications, 1989, p. 38 (the shelved copy).
  53. Jeff Garrison and Kayoko Kimiya, Kodansha's Dictionary of Basic Japanese Idioms, Kodansha International, 2002, entry 456 (the shelved copy).
  54. 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

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 能ある鷹は爪を隠す (nō aru taka wa tsume o kakusu)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/no-aru-taka-wa-tsume-o-kakusu.