Personality like split bamboo

Posted on 25. Jul, 2008 @ 5:09 pm by in Culture, Language Views: 636

竹を割ったような性格

“take wo watta youna seikaku”

Literal translation: Personality like a split bamboo.

Another fun phrase encountered during my translation adventures…

This actually refers to someone who is frank, straightforward, and open-hearted.

Just like a split bamboo.

I don’t know exactly where this phrase comes from, but my guess is that when you split bamboo with a sword, (or less dramatically with a big knife) it cuts very cleanly. If you cut it at an angle, you get a point. I can see the relationship between that clean, sharp pointed split and a sharp, frank personality… The open-hearted thing though, I don’t know.

Edit: The imagry is meant to be of the bamboo being split lengthwise. When bamboo is cut lengthwise it snaps open sharply and cleanly. See the comments for mroe discussion.

- Harvey

  • http://pa-2.blogspot.com William “Papa” Meloney

    Split bamboo length-wise, the long way…

  • http://www.japannewbie.com Harvey

    William, just confirmed with the wife, and you’re right! It is split length-wise.

    I also asked another Japanese friend about the “open-hearted” thing, and he said it was kinda weird. He described it as someone who is so frank, they can accidently hurt people sometimes. So maybe “blunt” is a better translation.

    Thanks for the tidbit.

    - Harvey

  • http://www.narrativedisorder.com DBR

    I think ‘blunt’ in itself might be a little ‘blunt’. Perhaps by open-hearted they mean that they let their feelings show? When you split bamboo you get a hollow on the inside rather than when you split the wood from an oak which is still a solid block – so I guess when you do that you lay it’s insides bare AND remove all it’s strength (something I suspect many who keep their feelings bottled up believe will happen if they let them loose) … The imagery works for me anyway :)

  • http://www.japannewbie.com Harvey

    This is fun :-)

    After badgering my wife for more information… She said that its someone for whom their behavior is really “black or white”. Which goes along with frankness. When I asked her, well why bamboo? She said when you split bamboo length-wise, it splits really fast, and snappy like. Pow! Split! If you know what I mean. It’s not a slow, wishy-washy process.
    So maybe that works?

  • http://www.narrativedisorder.com DBR

    Ah… I see it! hehe it is fun – pfft and here I am seeing sweet nuances in the whole thing – clearly I’m a wishy washy open hearted sook – not like bamboo at all! lol

  • chris

    ok, i get the point. some of you sound like your partners may be from japan. would you ask them how is bamboo actually split? i have been looking all over the web and can’t find out how to do it. please help me.

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