"河童の川流れ" meaning in Japanese

See 河童の川流れ in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

IPA: [ka̠p̚pa̠ no̞ ka̠β̞a̠ na̠ɡa̠ɾe̞] Forms: 河童の川流れ [canonical] (ruby: (), (っぱ), (かわ), (なが)), kappa no kawa nagare [romanization]
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”)). 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. Etymology templates: {{ja-r|連%用%形|れん%よう%けい|stem or continuative form|rom=ren'yōkei}} 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”), {{ja-r|流れる|ながれる|to flow; to be flushed away|pos=}} 流(なが)れる (nagareru, “to flow; to be flushed away”), {{ja-etym-renyokei|流れる|ながれる|to flow; to be flushed away|nodot=1}} 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”) Head templates: {{ja-pos|proverb|かっぱ の かわ ながれ|head=河童の川流れ}} 河(か)童(っぱ)の川(かわ)流(なが)れ • (kappa no kawa nagare)
  1. even Homer nods: even the experts make mistakes Wikipedia link: Daijirin, Daijisen#Online_search_engines, Kōjien, Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, Shinmura Izuru Synonyms: 猿も木から落ちる, 弘法にも筆の誤り
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      "name": "ja-r"
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        "1": "流れる",
        "2": "ながれる",
        "3": "to flow; to be flushed away",
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        "1": "流れる",
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      "expansion": "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”)",
      "name": "ja-etym-renyokei"
    }
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  "etymology_text": "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”)). 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.\nFirst cited to a text from 1829.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "河童の川流れ",
      "ruby": [
        [
          "河",
          "か"
        ],
        [
          "童",
          "っぱ"
        ],
        [
          "川",
          "かわ"
        ],
        [
          "流",
          "なが"
        ]
      ],
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        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "kappa no kawa nagare",
      "tags": [
        "romanization"
      ]
    }
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        "head": "河童の川流れ"
      },
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        "even Homer nods: even the experts make mistakes"
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      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "猿も木から落ちる"
        },
        {
          "word": "弘法にも筆の誤り"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Daijirin",
        "Daijisen#Online_search_engines",
        "Kōjien",
        "Nihon Kokugo Daijiten",
        "Shinmura Izuru"
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  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "[ka̠p̚pa̠ no̞ ka̠β̞a̠ na̠ɡa̠ɾe̞]"
    }
  ],
  "word": "河童の川流れ"
}
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  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "河童の川流れ",
      "ruby": [
        [
          "河",
          "か"
        ],
        [
          "童",
          "っぱ"
        ],
        [
          "川",
          "かわ"
        ],
        [
          "流",
          "なが"
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          "even Homer nods",
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          "mistake",
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          "word": "猿も木から落ちる"
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          "word": "弘法にも筆の誤り"
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        "Daijirin",
        "Daijisen#Online_search_engines",
        "Kōjien",
        "Nihon Kokugo Daijiten",
        "Shinmura Izuru"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "[ka̠p̚pa̠ no̞ ka̠β̞a̠ na̠ɡa̠ɾe̞]"
    }
  ],
  "word": "河童の川流れ"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable Japanese dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-08-07 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-08-02 using wiktextract (8b3c49c and 3c020d2). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.