E ni Kaita Mochi (A Rice Cake Drawn in a Picture)
E ni Kaita Mochi
絵に描いた餅
Yesterday I wrote about “mochitsuki” (rice cake pounding).
昨日は「餅つき」について書きました。
Today I will talk about the proverb “e ni kaita mochi”, which includes the word “mochi”.
今日はそれにちなんで、「絵に描いた餅」ということわざを紹介します。
The literal meaning of “e ni kaita mochi” is “a rice cake drawn in a picture”, and it means that something is totally useless or there is no possibility to realize something, even if it looks/sounds good.
「絵に描いた餅」は、（見栄えや聞こえが良くても）何の役にも立たないことや、実現する可能性がないことを表します。
This proverb comes from the fact that even if you can draw mochi (rice cake) in a picture very well, you can’t eat it, and it is not useful.
このことわざは、餅を上手に描けても食べることはできず、役に立たないことに由来します。
The etymology is the Chinese word “gabei”, (“ga” means “picture” and “bei” means “mochi”) which can be found in Sangokushi.
語源は、三国志に出てくる中国語の「画餅」です。
