How to Read “Even pockmarks are dimples”
Abata mo ekubo
Meaning of “Even pockmarks are dimples”
“Even pockmarks are dimples” means that even the flaws of someone you love appear beautiful to you.
When you fall in love, your partner’s shortcomings and faults don’t just stop bothering you. They actually start to seem attractive.
This proverb describes the psychology of people in love from an outside perspective. The person in love sincerely praises their partner’s qualities.
But to everyone else, they’re clearly praising obvious flaws. When you say someone is experiencing “even pockmarks are dimples,” you’re gently pointing out that love is blind.
Even today, you see people who mistake their lover’s faults for virtues. They call a messy person “easygoing” or interpret stubbornness as “strong-willed.”
This proverb doesn’t criticize this distorted perception unique to romance. Instead, it views it warmly as a natural human emotion.
Origin and Etymology
In “Even pockmarks are dimples,” the word “abata” (pockmarks) refers to the scarred, uneven skin left on the face after recovering from smallpox.
Smallpox was a terrible disease that ravaged Japan until the Edo period. Even survivors often had facial pockmarks, which caused great distress.
“Ekubo” (dimples) are the charming indentations that appear in the cheeks when smiling. They were considered symbols of beauty.
The exact origin of this proverb is unclear. However, it appears in Edo period literature, suggesting it was widely used then.
Smallpox was a familiar disease at the time. Pockmarks were flaws everyone wanted to avoid.
Yet even a lover’s pockmarks could look as beautiful as dimples. This extreme contrast brilliantly expresses the blind nature of romantic love.
Looking at the structure, the particle “mo” (even) plays a crucial role. It means “even pockmarks look like dimples.”
What should be a flaw transforms into a virtue through the filter of affection. People of that era used familiar disease scars to express this reversal phenomenon.
This is where the proverb’s cleverness lies.
Interesting Facts
In 1980, the World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated. It’s the only infectious disease humanity has completely eliminated.
Pockmarks, once familiar to Edo period people, are rarely seen today. Yet this proverb lives on because it captures a universal truth about human psychology in love.
Dimples have been symbols of charm worldwide, not just in Japan. In Japan’s Heian period, dimples were considered a mark of beauty.
There was even a makeup technique where people would deliberately draw dimples on their faces.
Usage Examples
- She says his indecisiveness is actually kindness, but that’s totally “even pockmarks are dimples”
- Watching my daughter with her boyfriend shows how true “even pockmarks are dimples” is—love is strange when you can think someone so flawed is wonderful
Universal Wisdom
The proverb “Even pockmarks are dimples” teaches us a universal truth. Human perception becomes greatly distorted by emotion.
We think we see the world objectively. But we actually judge things through the filter of our feelings.
Romance is where this cognitive distortion appears most clearly. Why do people become blind to their partner’s flaws when they fall in love?
It’s because affection is a fundamental emotion tied to survival and reproduction. If you accurately recognized your partner’s flaws, maintaining the relationship might become difficult.
So the brain idealizes the loved one to preserve the relationship.
However, this proverb contains more than just criticism. It also affirms the depth of human affection.
You don’t love someone while recognizing their flaws as flaws. The flaws themselves become endearing.
This unconditional acceptance may be the essence of love.
Our ancestors didn’t reject this blind love. Rather, they accepted it as part of being human and expressed it with humor.
They knew that sometimes having passion strong enough to lose your reason matters more than perfect judgment. That too is an important element that enriches life.
When AI Hears This
When the human brain looks at a face, an “anomaly detection system” activates first. It instantly scans for asymmetry, skin irregularities, and color differences.
It searches for signs of disease or injury. This automatic processing is rooted in survival instinct and completes before conscious awareness.
But when romantic feelings emerge, this processing order itself changes.
In cognitive psychology, humans constantly “fill in incomplete information to create meaningful wholes.” For example, even if part of a circle is missing, the brain automatically perceives a complete circle.
A brain in love processes the partner’s entire face as one complete pattern called “the person I love.” Pockmarks get incorporated as “distinctive elements that make up that person’s uniqueness.”
Pattern completion takes priority before anomaly detection can activate.
What’s more interesting is that this switch involves not just the visual cortex but also the reward system. Each time you see the pockmarks, dopamine releases.
They themselves become triggers for pleasure. So physically identical indentations shift from “warning signals” to “reward prediction signals” in the neural circuitry—opposite meanings.
Objective beauty doesn’t exist because the brain isn’t a mirror reflecting reality as is. It’s a device that constructs completely different worlds depending on context.
Lessons for Today
This proverb teaches modern people the importance of recognizing how emotions influence our judgment. Not just in romance, but in work and friendships too.
We tend to interpret favorably the words and actions of people we like. We view the same behavior negatively when someone we dislike does it.
However, this lesson doesn’t mean “eliminate emotions.” Rather, what matters is knowing that emotions change how things appear, then accepting that fact.
If you find someone’s flaws attractive, that might be a sign of genuine affection. On the other hand, when making important decisions, you need the presence of mind to pause.
Ask yourself if you’re seeing pockmarks as dimples.
In modern society, we constantly see others’ “perfect” images on social media. But real relationships deepen based on how you accept someone’s flaws.
The heart that sees pockmarks as dimples may sometimes be blind. But it’s also the power to love someone deeply.
If you can truly think your loved one’s “pockmarks” are “dimples,” isn’t that a happy thing?
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