About Kotowaza
Japanese kotowaza are proverbs, maxims, aphorisms, and other sayings that are a fairly common in colloquial speech. Like the English "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," they are sometimes used as reminders or advice, and sometimes in self-reference.
A surprising amount of kotowaza have clear, direct analogues in English and other languages, with no common origin in many cases. However, there are a good number that introduce new ideas, hence my translations of them.