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善かれ悪しかれ yokare ashikare For Better Or For Worse

善かれ悪しかれ (yokare ashikare), good or bad, either way, is followed from a letter of Hōnen copied in 1256 through Edo fiction to the wedding vow.

Japanese Scroll of For Better Or For Worse (yokare ashikare) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
For Better Or For Worse善かれ悪しかれyokare ashikare

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

善かれ悪しかれ, yokare ashikare, is a Japanese adverb, good or bad, either way. It is known first from a letter of Hōnen in the 西方指南抄, the collection of his words that Shinran wrote out in 1256, and it runs through a Muromachi tale, Edo popular fiction from 1836 and Meiji print, which writes it in characters by 1887. English dictionaries have glossed it since Hepburn's of 1867; a Japanese school grammar of 1898 glossed the English idiom for better, for worse with it, in a sentence about a marriage, and Saitō Hidesaburō's English-Japanese dictionary of 1915 rendered the marriage vow by its verbs and kept 善かれ悪しかれ for there is nothing for it. The Japanese church's prayer book, from 1895, renders the vow's for better for worse as さいはひにもわざはひにも and puts the promise in its verbs: the adverb is the same in the two languages, and the vow's promise is in the words around it.

Overview

The sense. Good or bad, either way; whatever the outcome. デジタル大辞泉: よいにしろ、悪いにしろ。善悪にかかわらず。どっちにしても, whether good or bad; regardless of good and bad; either way, with the example 善かれ悪しかれ結果を待つしかない, good or bad, all one can do is wait for the result, and a list of synonyms that are adverbs of summation and resignation: どの道, 結局, 所詮, 何れにしても, 要するに [1]. It is the only entry for the word at kotobank; 精選版日本国語大辞典 has no headword for it there. The bilingual dictionaries have carried it since Hepburn's of 1867.

The words. Two old imperatives joined into one adverb: よかれ is the classical adjective 良し in the form that means let it be good; あしかれ is 悪し, let it be bad; together they say be it good or be it bad. The oldest witnesses write the word in kana; Meiji print has it in characters by 1887 and in the scroll's own two, in their older forms 善 and 惡, by 1889 [2][3], and the modern dictionary writes it with 善 and 悪, and デジタル大辞泉 marks 悪 with the sign for a reading outside the standard list, since あし is not among that character's approved readings [1]. One word in several spellings and one sense; what changes from witness to witness is what the good and the bad are said of.

The text in English. For better or worse; right or wrong; for good or ill is EDRDG's gloss. As an English adverb for better or worse means what the Japanese means; in the marriage vow the same words stand inside a promise whose verbs carry it.

The historical record

1256. Hōnen's reply to Ōgo Tarō Sanehide, in Shinran's 西方指南抄. Hōnen (1133–1212) [4] writes to a lay follower about exclusive nembutsu. Sanehide was of the Ōgo, a landholding family of Kōzuke and vassals of the Kamakura shogunate, he and his father known as Hōnen's followers [5], and the letter addresses him as one of the 殿原, the lords. Near the end Hōnen warns him against looking down on those who practice otherwise. The 西方指南抄, the collection of Hōnen's words in Shinran's hand, carries the letter in a fascicle Shinran signed as written out on the thirtieth of the tenth month of 康元元年, 1256, at eighty-four, 康元元丙辰十月三十日書之 愚禿親鸞八十四歳; in the Taishō canon's text the sentence reads ヨクヨク御ツツシミ候テ。雜行ノ人ナレハトテ。アナツル御ココロ候マシ。ヨカレアシカレ。人ノウエノ善惡ヲオモヒイレヌカ。ヨキコトニテ候也。, be very careful; even if someone is a person of mixed practices, you must not have a heart that scorns him. Good or bad, either way, it is best not to take to heart the good and bad of what other people do [6]. The word means whichever way it is, and the sentence is about leaving other people's conduct alone. The letter is signed 源空, Hōnen's monastic name, and dated only 三月十四日, the fourteenth of the third month. The autograph, a national treasure at the Senjuji temple with a colophon of 1257 [7], is not read here; the Taishō's text prints Shinran's colophons. The 和語燈録, the Japanese half of 了慧's 黒谷上人語燈録, compiled in 1274 and 1275 [8], carries the same letter: its text in the Taishō reads ヨカレアシカレ。人ノウヘノヨシアシヲハ [9], and an 1881 print reads ヨカレアシカレ。人ノ上ノ善悪ヲ [10]. The 1906 『法然上人全集』, letter 48, prints it as よかれあしかれ。人のうへのよしあしをば, and its editor notes that the 西方指南鈔 version differs from it in not a few places, 異同少からず [11]. The witnesses differ between 善惡 and ヨシアシ, two writings of good and bad, and every one carries ヨカレアシカレ. In the eighteenth century the Jōdo monk 関通 (1696–1770) [12] quoted the letter at length, this sentence with it in the wording of the Taishō's 和語燈録 and the 1906 edition, ヨカレアシカレ人ノウヘノヨシアシヲバオモヒ入ヌガヨキ事ニテ候ナリ, in the essays printed in 1892 as 『夢の知識』 [13].

Muromachi period, in an Edo print. 『唐糸草子』, a tale of the 御伽草子, in the 1891 typeset edited by 今泉定介 and 畠山健. The tale of Karaito, a lady at Yoritomo's court in Kamakura and the daughter of one of Kiso Yoshinaka's men, who plots Yoritomo's death at Yoshinaka's asking and is caught and shut in a stone cell, and of her daughter Manju, who comes to Kamakura to find her [14]. Manju has listened more than twenty days for anyone to speak her mother's name, and says to her nurse, Sarashina: 生きてうきよにあるならば。人をば。よかれあしかれさたするならひなり。名をだに申す人もなし。, if she were alive and in this world, people would be talking of her, for good or for ill; that is the way of it. Yet no one so much as says her name [15]. Here the word means well or ill, said of how people are spoken of, and the sentence turns on it: to be talked about either way is the proof of being alive. The dictionaries date the tale to the Muromachi period and name it as one of the twenty-three tales of the 渋川版 御伽文庫, the Edo printed set [14]; the 1891 typeset is drawn from that set with the kanji filled in, so its words are the Edo print's, and no older copy of the tale is read here.

Edo period, undated. 『俗語之種』, a miscellany by 粟生菴清陰, part 4. Among remarks on writing: 物書事はよかれあしかれの出入や, writing things down is a matter of coming out well or badly [16]. The catalogue gives no date.

1836. 墨川亭雪麿's illustrated novel 『也字結恋之弶天』. A character in the dense kana of the genre: こんやもふしゆびよかれあしかれもういちをわしかいつてやかたのやうすとつくり見てからに, tonight too, whether it comes off well or badly, I'll go once more and have a good look at how things stand at the mansion [17]. The word is said of 首尾, the outcome.

1852. 笠亭仙果's illustrated novel 『春服対佳賀紋』, part 3. A speaker entrusts a matter to the Buddha, おによらいさま, the 如来: いつかういつしんおによらいさまにおたのみまうしよかれあしかれおまかせまうじて, with all my heart I ask it of the Buddha and leave it to him, come what may [18]. Among the Edo witnesses this is the nearest the word comes to the spirit of a vow, and the other party is a Buddha, and the act is surrender rather than promise.

1887 and 1889. The word in characters. Meiji prose begins to write it in kanji: 良カレ惡シカレ in the education journal 教育報知 in July 1887, of an occasion whose audience was mostly young women and wives, which left them, good or bad, with no small impression [2]; and 善カレ惡シカレ, the scroll's characters in their older forms, in 1889 in 『馬術教程』, a translated riding manual, of the cavalrymen of an earlier day, who had neither time nor means to school their horses, rode each in his own fashion, and kept their seat, good or bad, in whatever position best suited their build [3]. The 1887 journal page is served only to registered readers in Japan, and its words are quoted from the excerpt the library's full-text index returns.

1891. A dodoitsu in 『新選歌曲集』. A popular song uses it as a shrug: よかれあしかれ入らざるお世話, good or bad, it's none of your business [19].

1894. A married couple, in an excerpt. The magazine 文海, March 1894: …たび夫婦となりては。よかれあしかれ。ともに苦樂をなめて。とあるをりも。かゝるをりも見すぐ…, …once they have become husband and wife, for good or ill, they taste joy and pain together, and at this time and at that they see it through… [20]. The word is said here of a marriage, and it does the adverb's work: the sharing is in ともに苦樂をなめて, they taste joy and pain together, and よかれあしかれ says that it holds either way. The page is served only to registered readers in Japan; the sentence is quoted from the excerpt the library's full-text index returns, which breaks off at both ends, so who says it, and in what mood, is not known.

1895. The vow in the Japanese church's words. The prayer book of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, the Anglican church in Japan, gives the man's vow: 我れ神の制定に從ひて汝を娶る。今よりのち福祉にも殃禍にも富にも貧しきにも・健かなる時も病める時も・なんぢを愛し・汝を護り・死に至るまで汝を有つべし。我れ今これを約す, according to God's ordinance I take thee to wife. From this time forth, in weal and in woe, in riches and in poverty, in health and in sickness, I will love thee, keep thee, and have thee until death. This I now promise; 福祉 and 殃禍 are glossed さいはひ and わざはひ [21]. The edition of 1941 reads 幸福にも災禍にも, with the same glosses, and 保つべし for 有つべし [22]. The church's for better for worse is さいはひにもわざはひにも, not 善かれ悪しかれ, and its promise is in the verbs, 有つべし and 約す.

1900. 金沢庄三郎, 『日本文法講義』. A grammar takes the word apart to show the seam: くとありとが結びついて、善かれ惡しかれ」などゝなるのは、假初の結びつきであるから、これを引き離して善くあれ」惡しくあれ」としても意味を傷けない, when -ku and ari have fused, as in yokare ashikare, the fusion is a light one, so pulling them apart into yoku are, ashiku are does no harm to the sense [23]. The grammars had been naming the form since 落合直文's 『日本文典』 of 1891, which gives 善かれ、惡しかれ as the imperative of the adjective [24]; both write 惡, the older form of the modern 悪.

The dictionary today. デジタル大辞泉 is the only entry for the word at kotobank, with the sense and the example given in Overview above [1].

The vow. The English vow of the Book of Common Prayer, in the book of 1662: I M. take thee N. to my wedded Wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth [25]. Its for better for worse is an adverbial inside the promise, which is made by take, to have and to hold and I plight thee my troth. The vow is not a source of the Japanese word. A Meiji grammar glossed its English idiom with the word in 1898, and a Meiji lexicographer rendered the vow by its verbs in 1915; both are in the next section.

The word in English

1867. Hepburn. The first edition of Hepburn's Japanese-English dictionary, under the verb yokari: Yokare-ash'kare, whether good or bad no matter [26]. It is the earliest English gloss in the sources read; the later editions keep it.

1898. 中原貞七, 『新編中等英文典』. A Japanese translation of an English school grammar glosses the English idiom with the word, in a sentence about a marriage: For better, for worse (よかれわしかれ) She married you for better, for worse (for any good or evil that may fall to your lot hereafter), with the Japanese 此後汝の運の善悪に管せす彼女は汝と結婚しき, without regard to the good or ill of your fortune hereafter, she married you [27]. The leaf prints わしかれ, a misprint for あしかれ; the library's text layer reads あしかれ. The English example and its gloss are J. C. Nesfield's, in Idiom, Grammar and Synthesis for Middle Schools [28]. The grammar pairs idiom with idiom: its sentence tells of a marriage and is not the vow, and its Japanese puts the marriage in 結婚しき and the either-way in 善悪に管せず.

1915. Saitō Hidesaburō, Idiomological English-Japanese Dictionary. Saitō renders the vow by its verbs and keeps the adverb for another sense. Under better: To take a man (or a woman) for better or for worse, (其人の身に何事が起つても變る事なしと)行末永く連れ添ふ(結婚式の誓言), to go through life together, (nothing that befalls the other changing it) (the marriage vow); They have taken each other for better or for worse, 偕老同穴の契を結んだ, they have sworn to grow old together and share one grave; and We must take our lot for better or for worse, 運だから善かれ惡かれ仕方がない, it is fate: good or bad, there is nothing for it, where the print drops the し [29]. Under for, the two senses side by side: 行末永く(添ふの意味より), for ever (from the sense of staying together); 善かれ惡しかれ(仕方が無いと諦める), good or bad (resigning oneself, there is nothing for it) [30]. The entries are quoted from the revised editions of 1918 and 1924 at the National Diet Library; the 1915 first edition carries the same words.

1924. Chamberlain. The University of Chicago edition of Basil Hall Chamberlain's A Simplified Grammar of the Japanese Language, revised by J. G. McIlroy, names the phrase among the few in which the old imperative survives: Yokare ashikare, "be it good or bad," "for better or worse" [31]. The 1886 first edition does not carry the example.

Today. EDRDG. For better or worse; right or wrong; for good or ill [32], one sense in three glosses, tagged as an adverb. As an English adverb for better or worse means what the Japanese means: the plan went ahead, for better or worse.

A reading

A word, not a saying: Hōnen uses it to tell a vassal to leave other people's failings alone, and a Muromachi tale uses it for the talk of the world that proves a woman is still alive. In every witness since, it means good or bad, either way, said of whatever the sentence puts before it. Pairing it with the vow is not a mistranslation: the English adverb says what the Japanese says, and a Japanese grammar glossed the one with the other in 1898. The promise is in neither adverb. The Japanese church put the vow's for better for worse into さいはひにもわざはひにも and its promise into 死に至るまで汝を有つべし。我れ今これを約す; Saitō rendered the vow by its verbs, 行末永く連れ添ふ, and left 善かれ悪しかれ the resignation, there is nothing for it; in the 1894 sentence about husband and wife the sharing is ともに苦樂をなめて. On a wall at a wedding the scroll says the vow's either-way, and the promise is the couple's.

Sources not seen

The two Meiji magazines cited here at scan numbers from the National Diet Library's full-text index: 教育報知 of July 1887 and 文海 of March 1894. Each is quoted from the excerpt the index returns; the pages are served only to registered readers in Japan. The pages would show who wrote the 1894 sentence about husband and wife, and whether it is an essay of the writer's own or a rendering of a Western text.

Shinran's autograph of the 西方指南抄 at the letter, read here in the Taishō's typeset, and the nine-fascicle biography. The 渋川版 print of the 唐糸草子, and any copy of the tale older than it.

The 1915 first edition of Saitō's dictionary at a public address. It is quoted here from its revised editions of 1918 and 1924 at the National Diet Library, which print the same words.

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

References

  1. 「善かれ悪しかれ」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/善かれ悪しかれ-653615
  2. 『教育報知』, 東京教育社, July 1887, scan 6 (the excerpt at the NDL full-text index; the page is served only to registered readers in Japan). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/3546029/1/6
  3. コント・ドール, 『馬術教程』, 内外兵事新聞局, 1889, scan 255. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/844708/1/255
  4. 「法然」, デジタル大辞泉 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/法然-132376
  5. 「大胡氏」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/大胡氏-1150836
  6. 親鸞 書写, 『西方指南抄』 下本, 大胡太郎實秀へつかはす御返事, Taishō 83, no. 2674, p. 889b13 (colophon 康元元年, p. 896a15), at SAT. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/ddb-sat2.php?mode=detail&useid=2674_,83,0889
  7. 「西方指南抄」, 精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/西方指南抄-68228
  8. 「黒谷上人語灯録」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/黒谷上人語灯録-487222
  9. 了恵 編, 『黒谷上人語燈録』 卷第十三, 大胡太郎實秀ヘツカハス御返事, Taishō 83, no. 2611, p. 214a26, at SAT. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/ddb-sat2.php?mode=detail&useid=2611_,83,0214
  10. 了恵 編, 『黒谷上人語燈録』 巻第3・4, 大高文進, 1881, scan 36. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/820410/1/36
  11. 法然, 大胡太郎實秀へつかはす御返事, in 『法然上人全集』, item 48, 1906 typeset, p. 486, scan 253. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/991644/1/253
  12. 「関通」, デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/関通-1068512
  13. 関通, 『夢の知識 : 関通上人随筆』, 小野国松, 1892, scan 98. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/822655/1/98
  14. 「唐糸草子」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, 日本大百科全書 and ブリタニカ国際大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/唐糸草子-47020
  15. 『唐糸草子』, in 今泉定介・畠山健 校定, 『御伽草子』前, 吉川半七, 1891, p. 16, scan 78. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992891/1/78
  16. 粟生菴清陰, 『俗語之種』, part 4, scan 3. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2578789/1/3
  17. 墨川亭雪麿, 『也字結恋之弶天』, 天保七年 (1836), scan 16. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/10301655/1/16
  18. 笠亭仙果, 『春服対佳賀紋』, 三編, 嘉永五年 (1852), scan 6. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/10303763/1/6
  19. 『新選歌曲集』, 1891, scan 184. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/876518/1/184
  20. 『文海』, 文海社, March 1894, scan 4 (the excerpt at the NDL full-text index; the page is served only to registered readers in Japan). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1492932/1/4
  21. 『日本聖公会祈祷書』, 日本聖公会出版会社, 1895, 結婚式 握手盟約, p. 225, scan 136. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/824978/1/136
  22. 『日本聖公会祈祷書』, 聖公会出版社, 1941, 結婚式 握手盟約, p. 437, scan 222. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1110141/1/222
  23. 金沢庄三郎, 『日本文法講義』, 1900, scan 74. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/993662/1/74
  24. 落合直文, 『日本文典』, 1891, scan 41. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992870/1/41
  25. The Book of Common Prayer, 1662, the Form of Solemnization of Matrimony. https://pemberley.com/janeinfo/compraym.html
  26. J. C. Hepburn, A Japanese and English Dictionary, Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1867, entry Yokari. https://archive.org/details/japaneseenglishd00hepb?q=%22whether+good+or+bad+no%22
  27. 中原貞七 訳, 『新編中等英文典』, 三河屋, 1898, p. 71, scan 38. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/870368/1/38
  28. J. C. Nesfield, Idiom, Grammar and Synthesis for Middle Schools, the Internet Archive's copy dated 1896. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.54661?q=%22may+fall+to+your+lot+hereafter%22
  29. 齊藤秀三郎, Saito's Idiomological English-Japanese Dictionary (熟語本位英和中辭典), revised edition, S.E.G. Publishing Department, 1918, entry better, scan 57. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1681530/1/57
  30. 齊藤秀三郎, Saito's Idiomological English-Japanese Dictionary (熟語本位英和中辭典), revised edition, S.E.G. Publishing Department, 1924, entry for, scan 226. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1681529/1/226
  31. B. H. Chamberlain, A Simplified Grammar of the Japanese Language (Modern Written Style), ed. J. G. McIlroy, University of Chicago Press, 1924 (fourth impression, 1943). https://archive.org/details/simplifiedgramma00cham?q=%22yokare+ashikare%22
  32. EDRDG, 「善かれ悪しかれ」, at jisho. https://jisho.org/search/善かれ悪しかれ

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

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 善かれ悪しかれ (yokare ashikare)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/yokare-ashikare.