KANAE
303Japanese maxim 格言

実るまで待つのも修行

Minoru made matsu no mo shugyō

“Waiting for ripening is also part of the training.”

The meaning

There is a time to act and a time to let ripen — and the second takes as much discipline as the first. Knowing how to wait is a skill, not an absence.

At the origin

A maxim from the world of Japanese crafts and apprenticeship.

The characters

  1. 実る minoruto ripen
  2. まで madeuntil
  3. 待つ matsuto wait
  4. の
  5. も
  6. 修行

The complete word-by-word reading, in KANAE.

Particle“Until, up to”: the limit reached.

In practice

For what is ripening now: note the date you will check — and until then, hands off.

Editorial note

Maxim in common use.

Themes

Similar proverbs

  1. 130 Act without announcing.
  2. 078 Wait, and fair weather will come for the crossing.
  3. 122 He who travels a hundred leagues counts ninety as halfway.
  4. 030 The riper the rice ear, the lower it bows its head.
  5. 067 The years wait for no one.

Related expressions

  1. 140 Sincere simplicity, quiet strength.
  2. 200 A man's life is a long road walked under a burden; there is no need to hurry.
  3. 215 Departing spring — birds cry, and there are tears in the eyes of fish.
  4. 219 This road — no one else walks it. Autumn evening.

See also