Exploring the Image of Children in Japanese proverbs: A Semantic Analysis

In any language, linguistic expressions not just enrich the language but also act as invaluable resources to understand a country and its culture. Japanese language is rich in proverbs, idioms, and onomatopoeia, and all these give a character to the language unique to it while giving valuable insights into the culture and beliefs of Japan as well. In the case of proverbs which is the focus of the current study, they continue to exist in public memory despite many socio-economic and political changes which may have taken place over time, with some variations. This is evident from their continued usage, and presence in dictionaries and other media such as websites and books as well. This paper attempts to specifically look at the motif of ko or kodomo (child or children) as portrayed in Kotowaza (proverbs) to understand how Japanese society views them or what qualities it associates with them. It also attempts to see how the society and parental roles are defined vis-à-vis children, attempting to understand Japanese society’s understanding of children though this rich resource of linguistic expressions. The proverbs chosen are largely from dictionaries and websites which have enlisted proverbs which are relatively popular in recent times. A detailed study of the proverbs under the two categories act as sources of age-old wisdom and in this case of the many ideas associated with children-an integral part of the society. The paper attempts to explore the idea of children vis-a vis the adult in Japanese society through these timeless linguistic expressions by carrying out a semantic analysis using Wolfgang Mieder’s theory of paremiology, and studying prominent proverbs as they continue to exist in public memory through a sample of representative expressions.