How to Read “Even in rice bran, there is flour rice”
Nuka no naka ni mo kogome
Meaning of “Even in rice bran, there is flour rice”
“Even in rice bran, there is flour rice” means that valuable things can be found mixed in with worthless things.
It teaches us that even among things that seem trivial or useless at first glance, we can find something precious if we look carefully.
This proverb tells us how important it is to take another close look before judging things superficially and throwing them away.
People use it when they discover unexpected value in something they thought was useless. It’s also used to advise someone who’s about to throw something away: “Wait, there might be something useful in there.”
Today, we often use it when important documents turn up in a pile of old papers. Or when something we thought was junk turns out to be valuable.
This expression shows how important it is to examine things carefully without judging them based on preconceptions.
Origin and Etymology
No clear written records remain about the origin of this proverb. However, we can make interesting observations from the words themselves.
“Nuka” refers to the outer skin of rice that comes off when brown rice is polished. Before the Edo period, bran was used as animal feed or fertilizer—basically a byproduct.
“Kogome” means small rice grains that broke during the polishing process.
When rice polishing technology was undeveloped, flour rice always got mixed into the bran. While bran had little value, the flour rice mixed in was perfectly good food.
Poor people carefully sorted through the bran to pick out the flour rice to eat.
This proverb probably came from such everyday scenes. Even something that seems worthless may hide treasure inside.
Before throwing things away, it’s worth checking one more time. This wisdom from daily life is packed into these words.
This expression could only emerge from Japanese culture where rice is the staple food. It reflects the spirit of treasuring things.
Usage Examples
- While organizing old documents, even in rice bran, there is flour rice—I found the copy of the contract I’d been looking for
- That store has a messy selection, but even in rice bran, there is flour rice, so you might find hidden gems
Universal Wisdom
The proverb “Even in rice bran, there is flour rice” contains two universal truths about human nature: our tendency to overlook things and the joy of discovery.
We humans tend to categorize things roughly in our pursuit of efficiency. We make broad judgments like “this has value” and “this has no value,” then discard the latter.
But the world isn’t that simple. Treasures often hide among things that seem worthless.
This proverb has been passed down for so long because humans keep making the same mistakes. We repeatedly miss important things through hasty judgments.
Then later we realize, “Oh, it was in there all along.”
At the same time, this proverb expresses the fundamental human joy of “searching.” Like a treasure hunt, finding something valuable in what seems boring brings delight.
That moment of joy never changes, no matter the era. Our ancestors deeply understood this aspect of human nature.
They condensed the importance of living carefully into these few words and passed them down to us.
When AI Hears This
Imagine a mixture of bran and rice. When there’s 100 parts bran to 1 part flour rice, finding that flour rice requires processing 99% waste.
In information theory, this is called the “signal-to-noise ratio.” A ratio of 1 to 100 is extremely poor.
What’s interesting is the important principle this proverb suggests. The cost of extracting valuable information isn’t proportional to that information’s rarity. It’s proportional to the total volume that must be processed.
Modern big data analysis faces exactly this problem. When reading useful market trends from social media posts, 99.9% is irrelevant daily conversation.
But you must process everything because you can’t know where that valuable 0.1% is. It’s the same structure as sifting all the bran to get the flour rice.
AI machine learning works similarly. Learning from massive low-quality data sometimes produces better results than using only small amounts of high-quality data.
This is because even “bran” contains trace patterns. When these accumulate statistically, they become meaningful.
This proverb shows a perspective beyond binary value judgments. It presents a paradox: the large amount of seemingly worthless noise actually serves as the matrix that highlights and guarantees the existence of rare signals.
Lessons for Today
What this proverb teaches modern people is “the courage to pause before throwing things away.”
We live in an age of information overload. Every day we sort and discard things. We delete emails, dispose of documents, and even organize our relationships.
That speed is necessary, but isn’t it also important to pause sometimes?
Modern society especially makes us judge based only on first impressions and surface information. We instantly decide whether to “like” or ignore information flowing through social media.
We evaluate people we meet in short moments. But truly valuable things might be hidden where they’re not immediately visible.
Something you think “has no value anymore” might actually contain something important. Old friendships, half-read books, projects you started but abandoned.
Why not take another careful look? Like searching for flour rice in bran, take time to engage with things carefully.
That’s the secret to finding what’s truly important.
Comments