JapanNewbie

Keep the Men outta the Kitchen

Posted on 06. Jan, 2010 @ 12:27 pm by harvey in Culture Views: 435

This is a fun phrase.「男子厨房に入らず」(danshi chuubou ni hairazu).

Literally it means that men should not enter the kitchen. Another variation on the Japanese for this phrase is 「男子厨房に立たず」but the meaning is the same.

A Japanese explanation of the origin of this phrase appears in this Kyodo Shimbun article here:

『男子厨房に入らず』とは、豚や鶏を台所で処理する際、断末魔の声を男は聞くべきでない―という中国の故事が起源とされ、孟子の語録にもある。日本では男性の威厳を保つため、江戸時代以降、実践されてきた。

In translation:
It was said that men should not have to hear the death cries that result from killing pigs and chickens in the kitchen. This is an ancient Chinese idiom from the dialects of Confucius. In Japan this practice was taken up from the Edo period in order to preserve men’s dignity.

So, for those guys who don’t like to cook, maybe you can use this phrase to escape the inevitable duty. It might be hard to justify the death cries of animals in your kitchen nowadays… but you can leave that part out of the explanation and just mention the idiom itself.

Good luck escaping kitchen duty!

Harvey