Some of the wisest advice in the world fits inside a single short sentence. In Japan, those sentences are called kotowaza, and they have been handed down for centuries, from grandparents to grandchildren and from teachers to students.
Japanese proverbs grew out of Zen temples, samurai discipline, farm villages and busy market towns. Each one carries a small, sharp lesson about patience, humility, hard work or kindness, earned from real life rather than theory.
The best Japanese Proverbs are honest and practical, and many are gently funny as well. Every saying in this collection is a traditional proverb, credited simply to its folk source, exactly as it has always been told.
In this blog post, I have shared 63 Japanese proverbs in five themes, from standing up after every fall to knowing when silence says more than words. So, let’s begin with the proverbs that teach us how to endure.
13 Perseverance and Patience Japanese Proverbs
Fall seven times, stand up eight.
Japanese Proverb
Sit on a cold stone for three years, and even the stone will grow warm.
Japanese Proverb
Dust, piled up little by little, becomes a mountain.
Japanese Proverb
With many little strokes, a large tree is felled.
Japanese Proverb
After the rain, the ground hardens.
Japanese Proverb
To continue is strength itself.
Japanese Proverb
If you do not enter the tiger’s den, you will not catch its cub.
Japanese Proverb
Beginning is easy; continuing is hard.
Japanese Proverb
If you are in a hurry, take the roundabout way.
Japanese Proverb
Even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Japanese Proverb
The day you decide to act is your lucky day.
Japanese Proverb
A single arrow is easily broken, but ten arrows in a bundle are not.
Japanese Proverb
When you have completed ninety-five percent of your journey, you are only halfway there.
Japanese Proverb
Also Read: 55 Chinese Proverbs (Traditional Sayings on Life, Wisdom & Patience)
13 Wisdom and Learning Japanese Proverbs
The frog in the well knows nothing of the great ocean.
Japanese Proverb
To ask is a moment’s shame; not to ask is a lifetime’s shame.
Japanese Proverb
We learn little from victory, but a great deal from defeat.
Japanese Proverb
Seeing once is worth more than hearing a hundred times.
Japanese Proverb
A wise man hears one thing and understands ten.
Japanese Proverb
Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.
Japanese Proverb
The reverse side also has a reverse side.
Japanese Proverb
He who chases two hares will catch neither.
Japanese Proverb
First the man takes the drink; then the drink takes a drink; then the drink takes the man.
Japanese Proverb
The tongue is only three inches long, yet it can take the life of a man six feet tall.
Japanese Proverb
One dog barks at something, and a hundred dogs bark at the bark.
Japanese Proverb
Wisdom and virtue are like the two wheels of a cart.
Japanese Proverb
A gold coin is wasted on a cat.
Japanese Proverb
Also Read: 61 Irish Proverbs (Traditional Sayings on Life, Friendship & Luck)
12 Humility and Silence Japanese Proverbs
Even monkeys fall from trees.
Japanese Proverb
The talented hawk hides its claws.
Japanese Proverb
The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.
Japanese Proverb
The taller the bamboo grows, the lower it bends.
Japanese Proverb
Not speaking is a flower.
Japanese Proverb
After victory, tighten the cords of your helmet.
Japanese Proverb
Dumplings over flowers.
Japanese Proverb
The mouth is the gate through which trouble enters.
Japanese Proverb
Though small, the sparrow has everything it needs to be whole.
Japanese Proverb
To endure what seems unendurable is true endurance.
Japanese Proverb
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise; seek what they sought.
Matsuo Basho
A samurai who has not eaten still uses his toothpick as though he had feasted.
Japanese Proverb
Also Read: 34 Powerful Hawaiian Proverbs on Life, Family, Love, Death & Strength
12 Kindness, Friendship and Love Japanese Proverbs
One kind word can warm three winter months.
Japanese Proverb
When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.
Japanese Proverb
Cold tea and cold rice can be endured, but cold words and cold looks cannot.
Japanese Proverb
If you love your child, send him out on a journey.
Japanese Proverb
A man in love mistakes a pockmark for a dimple.
Japanese Proverb
One time, one meeting: every encounter is a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
Japanese Proverb
Good fortune comes to the home where there is laughter.
Japanese Proverb
Ten people, ten colours.
Japanese Proverb
Even the brushing of sleeves is a bond arranged by fate.
Japanese Proverb
A child does not know the heart of a parent.
Japanese Proverb
Love and a cough cannot be hidden.
Japanese Proverb
Every meeting, however sweet, must one day end in parting.
Japanese Proverb
Also Read: 40 Unique Korean Proverbs About Life, Love, Success, Death, and Family
13 Nature, Time and Change Japanese Proverbs
A fallen blossom never returns to the branch; a broken mirror never reflects again.
Japanese Proverb
Time flies like an arrow.
Japanese Proverb
Among flowers, the cherry blossom; among men, the warrior.
Japanese Proverb
Tomorrow’s wind will blow tomorrow.
Japanese Proverb
A bath refreshes the body, and tea refreshes the mind.
Japanese Proverb
As different as the moon and a turtle.
Japanese Proverb
Pour water on a frog’s face, and it will not care at all.
Japanese Proverb
Life is a flame in the wind.
Japanese Proverb
A deep river runs quietly.
Japanese Proverb
Winter always turns to spring.
Nichiren
When the wind blows hard, even the tub-maker grows rich.
Japanese Proverb
He who climbs Mount Fuji once is wise; he who climbs it twice is a fool.
Japanese Proverb
Let what is past be carried away by the water.
Japanese Proverb
Also Read: 90 Native American Proverbs About Life, Wisdom & Nature
Keep these proverbs close, and return to them whenever life asks for patience, courage or a quieter mind. A culture that can fit so much wisdom into so few words is worth listening to, one short sentence at a time.
