[For Seniors] Enjoyable Brain Training! Proverb Quiz Collection

Even a blockhead becomes respectable through faith.

It’s an expression meaning that even something trivial is appreciated by those who believe in it.

It’s also used to tease or be sarcastic toward people who stubbornly believe in a single thing.

It applies to customs involving head adornments, and Setsubun might be a big hint.

The answer is “sardine” (iwashi), said to derive from the “holly-sardine” decoration (hiiragi-iwashi) displayed during Setsubun.

Since “iwashi” often appears to mean something trivial or insignificant, it could be fun to learn other proverbs that use sardines as well.

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kappamaki

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to catch a sea bream with 〇〇

This is a proverb used to describe gaining great profit with little capital or effort.

Since sea bream (tai) is considered high-end, it’s easiest to think of something more accessible or smaller than that.

If you give hints like a small sea creature that can be used as fishing bait and appears alongside sea bream at the dining table, people should reach the answer.

The answer is “shrimp” (ebi).

Similar expressions include “nurete de awa” (literally, ‘millet on wet hands,’ meaning effortless gain) and “mugimeshi de tai o tsuru” (‘catching sea bream with barley rice’).

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kappamaki

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〇〇’s unhealthy habits

The expression “a doctor’s poor self-care” refers to someone who knows the right thing in their head but doesn’t act accordingly.

Imagine a hospital doctor advising people to practice good hygiene and work on improving their health, yet the doctor themselves behaves carelessly.

Originally, this phrase can be used regardless of occupation, but because it includes the word “doctor,” it’s often applied to physicians and other professionals.

In fact, it’s said that among doctors who recommend quitting smoking, there are some heavy smokers.

Similar proverbs include “the dyer’s son wears white trousers” and “the carpenter’s house is a makeshift shack.” Looking up their meanings might be interesting too.

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Nakajima Junko

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[Name] runs a thousand li

This is a proverb that compares how quickly wrongdoing spreads through the world.

You can probably get a sense of its meaning just from the proverb itself.

In an old Chinese text there’s a line that says, “Good deeds do not leave the gate; evil travels a thousand miles,” and this sparked its widespread use.

By the way, “good deeds do not leave the gate” means that good things don’t easily become widely known.

It’s sometimes used as a pair with the proverb “evil runs a thousand miles.” These days, with the spread of social media, bad deeds go viral instantly.

But it seems people have long said that bad deeds spread quickly.

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Nakajima Junko

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Even a small 〇〇 has a spirit of its own (literally: Even in an inch of 〇〇, there is a half-inch soul).

This is a phrase used as an example to show that no matter how weak something may be, it has its own pride and way of thinking, and shouldn’t be underestimated.

If you think about small things that we don’t usually pay much attention to in daily life, you might get closer to the answer.

One sun is about three centimeters, but that’s a figurative expression of smallness rather than an actual size—another hint.

The answer is “insect.” It’s a phrase that carries the lesson that even the smallest living creature has a life of its own and should not be treated carelessly.

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kappamaki

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