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A Japanese proverb (諺, ことわざ kotowaza) may take the form of:

a short saying (言い習わし iinarawashi),
an idiomatic phrase (慣用句 kan'yōku), or
a four-character idiom (四字熟語 yojijukugo).

One of my favourite kotowaza is 壁に耳あり、障子に目あり (kabe ni mimi ari shouji ni me ari) which means 'the walls have ears, the door have eyes'.

There's a similar expression in Karelian language. Check this out. 'Pertis pagizet — perti kuulou, ilmal pagizet — ulmu kuulou', which also means when you speak in house, your house is listening, and when you speak outside, the street is listening.

So this is the kanji for Kotowaza.

Posted on Sep 3, 2017

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