河童の川流れ

Japanese
Kanji in this term
河 童 川 流
かわ > か
Grade: 5		 わっぱ > っぱ
Grade: 3		 かわ
Grade: 1		 なが
Grade: 3
irregular kun’yomi

Etymology

Phrase consisting of 河童 (kappa, “water imp”, in traditional Japanese folklore) + の (no, possessive particle) + 川 (kawa, “river”) + 流れ (nagare, “flowing; flushing away”, the 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 流(なが)れる (nagareru, “to flow; to be flushed away”)).[1][2][3][4] Literally "Even the kappa is flushed away by the river". Metaphor for the way that anyone, even experts (as kappa are expert swimmers), might make mistakes.

First cited to a text from 1829.[1]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): [ka̠p̚pa̠ no̞ ka̠ɰᵝa̠ na̠ɡa̠ɾe̞]

Proverb

河(か)童(っぱ)の川(かわ)流(なが)れ • (kappa no kawa nagare) 

  1. [from 1829] even Homer nods: even the experts make mistakes
    Synonyms: 猿も木から落ちる (saru mo ki kara ochiru, literally “even monkeys fall from trees”), 弘法にも筆の誤り (Kōbō ni mo fude no ayamari, literally “brushstroke mistakes even in [the writings of] Kūkai”)

References
  1. “河童の川流れ”, in 日本国語大辞典 (Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, “Nihon Kokugo Daijiten”)‎ (in Japanese), concise edition, Tōkyō: Shogakukan, 2000
  2. “河童の川流れ”, in デジタル大辞泉 [Digital Daijisen]‎ (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, updated roughly every four months
  3. Shinmura, Izuru, editor (1998), 広辞苑 [Kōjien] (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten, →ISBN
  4. Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
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