- English translation
Don't take your wife on shrine visits in a town whose people are strangers to you.
- Literal wording
Your wife, don't take her visiting in the town that you don't know.
- Meaning and lesson
On its face the line tells a husband not to bring his wife along on a visit to a saint's shrine in some town where he knows nobody. The visit meant is the customary trip to the tombs of holy figures, not a social call.
The saying rests on a gendered suspicion: among unfamiliar, well-dressed townsmen, a country wife might be charmed by their polish and come home thinking less of her husband. It recommends staying among known people, reflecting the speaker's assumption rather than a fair view of women.
- When it is used
Recorded as a rural cautionary warning addressed to a husband: keep a wife's outings, such as shrine visits, to places whose people he knows. Its premise that wives are easily dazzled by strangers is a gendered assumption worth flagging when quoting it.
- Community
- Rural speakers, as distinct from townspeople
- Register
- Colloquial, proverbial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: Don't take your wife on shrine visits in a town whose people are strangers to you.