kanninbukuro no o ga kireru lit. ‘the cord of the patience bag snaps’
Japanese idiom, everyday. To suddenly lose your temper.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Japanese speaker.
How do people use 堪忍袋の緒が切れる
?
Everyday Japanese, used after someone has put up with something for a long time and finally blows up. You’ll hear it mostly in the past tense, 堪忍袋の緒が切れた (the cord has snapped), often with とうとう or ついに (finally). It works for yourself and for others, and the bigger the build-up before it, the better it fits.
Also said 堪忍袋の緒を切らす
堪忍袋の緒が切れる
in real sentences
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もう我慢できん。堪忍袋の緒が切れた。
Mō gaman dekin. Kanninbukuro no o ga kireta.
I can’t take this anymore. I’ve lost my temper completely.
Tatoeba, sentence by small_snow, translation by AlanF_US, CC BY 2.0 FR
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私は冷静でいようとしたが、とうとう堪忍袋の緒が切れた。
Watashi wa reisei de iyō to shita ga, tōtō kanninbukuro no o ga kireta.
I tried to be calm, but finally I lost my temper.
Tatoeba, sentence by mookeee, translation by CM, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does 堪忍袋の緒が切れる
come from?
The bag is a metaphor for how much you can put up with, and it’s on record early: Nihon Kokugo Daijiten finds the patience bag in a senryū from 1713, and the full phrase from the 1752 comic sermon book Kyōkun zō nagamochi, which jokes that if the cord snaps you should just tie it back together. Kotowaza o shiru jiten links it to an Edo-period culture that ranked patience as a virtue, with sayings like ならぬ堪忍するが堪忍 (real patience is putting up with the unbearable).
Mistakes learners make with 堪忍袋の緒が切れる
Writing 尾 (tail) instead of 緒 (cord), since both are read o. Digital Daijisen marks 堪忍袋の尾 as wrong: the bag is tied shut with a string, and it’s the string that snaps.
Other Japanese idioms like 堪忍袋の緒が切れる
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