Age: 53

Date of Performance: 02/25/25

Language: English, Japanese

Nationality: Japanese

Occupation: Immigration Lawyer

Primary Language: Japanese

Residence: Tokyo, Japan

“Do you have any other experiences with folklore possibly?”

“Um, I’m not sure. Um…”

“Take your time, it’s okay if you don’t by the way. No pressure, haha.”

“Oh, actually, I remember one saying my friends used to say which was 猫に小判 (Neko ni koban), which basically means ‘Giving a gold coin to a cat’. It was basically a way of saying that you are giving something valuable or important to someone who does not understand how much its worth. But the reason why we said it was that it was kind of a pun because you can hear ‘neko’ [which translates to ‘cat’] twice.”

“Oh, so like a play on words.”

“Yes. We found it pretty funny.”

Context and Analysis:

My mother came across this proverb when she was young, and it seems that a lot of these types of humorous Japanese proverbs involve a play on words or a pun. It is interesting to note how common cats and coins can be linked in Japanese imagery, such as the maneki neko, a common Japanese figurine that depicts a cat and a coin and is believed to bring good fortune. The analysis is fairly self-explanatory based on the interview. The proverb is a playful way of describing when someone does not understand the worth of what they were given. There are many times in life when someone may hold something whose value they do not even realize, and it can be interesting commentary on what we collectively hold as valuable and what we do not.