How does 丼勘定 {どんぶりかんじょう} (sloppy accounting) related to 丼 {どんぶり} (bowl of rice with toppings)? I mean, why どんぶり of all foods and things? Was there special history for the origin of this set phrase?
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Judging by the following link, どんぶり in this phrase didn't originally refer to the bowl, but a pocket in the front of an apron, where money was kept: http://gogen-allguide.com/to/donburikanjyou.html If someone was throwing all the incoming money into one pocket and fishing out change for customers from same, they probably didn't have a great idea at any one time of how much they had or any way of keeping track. http://www.samue.co.jp/shop/haori/ooedo4/ooedo4.html - this has an Edo-style "どんぶり" for a little visual reference (you'll note they use どんぶり勘定 with the hiragana). |
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First, let's be a bit more precise. saiga-jp.com gives 丼 a china bowl 丼勘定 sloppy accounting, spending money unsystematically i.e. the character refers to the bowl itself directly, and only by extension to food served in such a bowl. Seems to me like it's a metaphor, and a fairly arbitrarily selected one. You might as well ask why English speakers "hit the nail on the head", as opposed to (doing anything else properly), when they get something right. 勘 has meanings like 'intuition' and 定 like 'determine', so (my guess!) the metaphor is of putting all the numbers (receipts?) into a bowl, swirling them around and pulling out a result that looks right. |
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