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As part of my kanji studies, I'm currently stumbling through random passages in jmdict, with an eye towards keeping idioms that seem interesting and recognizable. As such, I do some basic google searches to see if there is any actual use in the wild.
Every single google search result for the quoted entry "宝は湧き物" is a dictionary entry. The pair of youtube entries are dictionary entries. The images are dictionary entries. 2 of 4 search results were posted by random_kotowaza-bot, a 3rd was a straight en-jp definition.
It seems like there is a historical source, as this appears in j-j entries with デジタル大辞泉 is listed as a reference. If this were vocabulary, I'd suggest [rare] or [obs]. Since the editorial policy wiki indicates that this dictionary is not a repository for arbitrary idioms and proverbs, instead allowing items that are "short, pithy passages which are recognized as useful" I suggest deleting it.
The danger of this entry existing is that "fortune comes to those who seek it" is super-catchy in English, while the proverb itself seems essentially unknown. I tried it on two Japanese students today, they had to google it.
Just to complicate slightly, there are two variants of this idiom, using 金 and 金銀 in place of 宝。 Neither of those appears in this dictionary. 金は湧き物 seems to at least exist in the wild, but is still rare. The kicker is that the reported meanings of the other two are at odds with this one (see references for Japanese definitions).
宝は湧き物: If you seek out money, you'll find it.
金銀は湧き物: If you don't work too hard, money will find its way to you naturally.
金は湧き物: If you don't think about it, even if you have no money, money will come to you.
Seems like I tracked down the source for the 金銀 variant in any case...
浮世草子 ukiyo-zōshi; Edo-period genre of literature depicting everyday life of the merchant class |