About

KANAE is a library of Japanese thoughts: proverbs (kotowaza), four-character idioms (yojijukugo), haiku and maxims, gathered and read slowly — the Japanese first, then its reading, its translation, its meaning, its origin, and what the sentence still proposes today.

Every character is a door: its reading, its origin, its composition, and every thought that carries it. One reads a proverb, understands a sign, wanders into another.

The translations are editorial — never literal out of laziness nor loose out of ease; origins are stated with care where sources differ. Nothing religious, nothing decorative: culture, meaning, language.

KANAE is also an app: one thought a day, a personal book, the complete word-by-word reading — on Android.