How to Read “When things drag on, tail fins get attached”
Koto ga nobireba ohire ga tsuku
Meaning of “When things drag on, tail fins get attached”
“When things drag on, tail fins get attached” means that as time passes, stories become exaggerated and details that differ from the facts get added.
Right after an event happens, people tell the story close to the truth. But as time passes and the story spreads from person to person, exaggerated expressions get added without anyone noticing.
Elements that weren’t originally there get mixed in. Just like tail fins are attached to a fish’s body, extra parts stick to the main story.
This proverb is often used when talking about rumors and hearsay. People say things like, “That story is a case of when things drag on, tail fins get attached, so it must have been a simpler event at first.”
It’s commonly used in contexts where someone doubts the credibility of a story. Even today, we see exactly what this proverb describes when information changes as it spreads on social media.
Origin and Etymology
No clear written records explain the origin of this proverb. However, we can make interesting observations from the words themselves.
“Ohire” means a fish’s tail and fins. Compared to the fish’s body, the tail and fins are parts attached afterward.
This word came to be used metaphorically because people compared how extra content gets added to stories with how tail fins are attached to a fish’s body.
The phrase “koto ga nobireba” (when things drag on) is also important. “Nobiru” means time passing.
In other words, it emphasizes the time element: the more time passes after an event occurs.
The cultural background of the Edo period likely plays a role too. Back then, rumors and gossip were forms of entertainment for common people.
People must have observed daily how stories changed as they passed from person to person. Storytellers would embellish tales to make them more interesting.
Listeners would alter content through faulty memory. These phenomena were commonly noticed long ago.
This proverb uses the familiar characteristics of fish to accurately express a universal phenomenon in human society. It demonstrates the sharp observation skills and rich linguistic sense of the Japanese people.
Usage Examples
- It was a small trouble at first, but when things drag on, tail fins get attached, so now it’s told like a major incident
- That rumor is also a case of when things drag on, tail fins get attached, so you’d better ask the person directly involved for the truth
Universal Wisdom
The proverb “When things drag on, tail fins get attached” sees through a fundamental quality hidden in human communication.
Why do stories change over time? It’s because humans aren’t just information transmission devices.
We are beings with emotions and imagination. When people hear a story, they interpret it in their own way, remember it, and retell it.
In that process, their own emotions and values unconsciously mix in. Vague parts of memory get filled in with imagination.
Furthermore, people have a desire to make stories interesting. It’s more engaging to tell an event dramatically than to relay a mundane occurrence exactly as it happened.
This attracts the listener’s attention better. When this psychology works, stories naturally expand.
This proverb has been passed down for so long because the phenomenon of information distortion is universal across time. In ancient oral cultures and in today’s internet society, this law remains unchanged as long as information passes through people.
Our ancestors understood through experience that “distortion” inevitably occurs in the flow of information in human society. They expressed this with the brilliant metaphor of a fish’s shape.
This wisdom offers deep insights about how we should approach information.
When AI Hears This
Claude Shannon, the founder of information theory, mathematically proved that noise inevitably mixes in when information is transmitted. What’s important is that this noise doesn’t simply add up.
It multiplies and amplifies. For example, if the original information is 90 percent accurate, after passing through 5 people it drops to about 59 percent (0.9 to the 5th power).
Furthermore, the human brain automatically fills in missing parts of information. This filled-in portion becomes the “original information” for the next person.
Looking at this phenomenon through information entropy reveals its true nature more clearly. Entropy is a measure of information uncertainty.
As the transmission path lengthens, the freedom of what receivers can fill in with guesswork increases. In other words, the space of possibilities expands.
If information can be interpreted 10 ways, and each branches into 10 more ways at the next stage, you get 100 possibilities in 2 stages and 1,000 in 3 stages. This is the true identity of tail fins.
Digital communication prevents this problem using error correction codes. But human communication has no verification function.
As time passes, opportunities for verification are also lost. Only the noise gets purely cultivated.
This proverb identified the irreversibility of information degradation hundreds of years before science proved it.
Lessons for Today
What this proverb teaches modern people is how to deal wisely with information.
First, it’s important to recognize that stories that have aged or passed through many people have inevitably changed. This doesn’t mean becoming suspicious.
It means making appropriate judgments while understanding the nature of information. The more important the information, the more you should develop the habit of checking it as close to the primary source as possible.
This proverb also makes us think about our responsibility when we become information transmitters ourselves. When you tell someone else a story you heard from another person, aren’t you unconsciously attaching “tail fins”?
It’s important to distinguish between facts and speculation and to try to convey things accurately.
In today’s social media age, the lessons of this proverb have become even more important. Information spreads instantly with one share button.
But before clicking, we should pause and develop the habit of checking the accuracy of the content.
Precisely because we live in a society overflowing with information, maintaining an attitude that values facts by applying the wisdom this proverb shows will also enhance your own credibility.
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