How to Read “Get a thousand koku and you’ll envy ten thousand koku”
Sengoku toreba mangoku urayamu
Meaning of “Get a thousand koku and you’ll envy ten thousand koku”
This proverb shows how greedy humans can be. No matter how much we get, we always want more.
It describes the psychology of someone who earns a thousand koku, which is already a good income, but still envies those with ten thousand koku and higher status.
Even today, this happens all the time. When your salary goes up, you start noticing people who earn even more.
You get promoted and feel happy for a moment. Then you immediately start thinking about the next position up.
Many people can relate to this experience.
This proverb points out a fact about human desire. It has no limits.
The joy of achieving a goal fades quickly. The next desire fills your mind even faster.
The proverb accurately captures this trait of human nature. We have trouble feeling satisfied.
You can use this saying when warning yourself or others about endless desire. It also works when calmly analyzing human nature.
Origin and Etymology
The exact source of this proverb is unknown. However, people believe it came from samurai society during the Edo period.
Koku was a unit measuring rice harvest. It served as the standard for calculating samurai salaries.
A samurai earning a thousand koku was quite high-ranking. Most lower-ranking samurai earned only a few dozen koku.
So a thousand koku represented a very privileged position.
But human psychology is strange. Someone who gets a thousand koku starts envying daimyo lords with ten thousand koku.
This expression emerged from the strict class system of the Edo period. Samurai were ranked in detail by their koku amounts.
They lived in an environment where they constantly had to be aware of higher classes.
What’s interesting is that this proverb isn’t just criticism. It calmly observes human nature.
No matter how wealthy you become, you can’t feel satisfied. People of that time expressed this human trait using concrete numbers like salary amounts.
This saying from the limited world of samurai society became a timeless proverb about universal human nature. This happened because it contained a truth everyone could relate to.
Interesting Facts
In the Edo period koku system, one koku equaled the amount of rice one adult consumed in a year.
So a samurai earning a thousand koku theoretically had income equivalent to food for a thousand people. In modern terms, this would be quite a high income.
Daimyo with ten thousand koku or more had to perform sankin-kotai, alternating residence between Edo and their domain.
This cost enormous amounts of money. Higher positions actually came with greater hardships.
There were realities you couldn’t see just by envying others. Perhaps this irony is also hidden in the proverb.
Usage Examples
- I finally became a section chief, but now I can’t stop thinking about becoming a department head. This is exactly “Get a thousand koku and you’ll envy ten thousand koku.”
- Every time his salary goes up, he complains. It’s “Get a thousand koku and you’ll envy ten thousand koku.” There’s no end to it.
Universal Wisdom
The human nature this proverb reveals is truly profound. Why can’t people feel satisfied?
It’s because humans are beings who constantly live through comparison.
We worry about our relative position, not absolute wealth. This proves that humans are social creatures.
We don’t live in isolation. We constantly confirm our position through relationships with others.
That’s why there’s no limit when we look upward.
However, this trait isn’t necessarily bad. It’s also the source of ambition.
If we became completely satisfied with our current situation, growth would stop. We can keep making efforts because we have hearts that look toward the next goal.
Our ancestors didn’t leave this proverb just to criticize greed. They probably wanted us to think about how to deal with it, after acknowledging it as human nature.
We can’t completely eliminate desire. But by being aware of it, we can at least avoid being controlled by it.
Recognize the value of what you have now, while still looking forward. This sense of balance is the life wisdom this proverb teaches.
When AI Hears This
When the human brain receives a reward, the nucleus accumbens releases dopamine and creates feelings of happiness.
What’s interesting is that this response weakens surprisingly quickly. Neuroscience research shows something remarkable.
When you repeatedly get the same reward, receptors in the brain decrease in just about two weeks. The same amount of dopamine no longer satisfies you.
This happens because the brain prioritizes efficiency. The brain constantly works as a sensor detecting changes.
When the same stimulus continues, it judges “this is already known information” and weakens its response.
For example, the excitement of buying a new game console disappears within weeks. Then you want an even better model next.
This phenomenon results from the brain adapting to the reward level of a thousand koku and raising its baseline.
Even more noteworthy is how the prefrontal cortex automatically performs “comparison with others.”
Someone with a thousand koku compares themselves with people around them who have ten thousand koku. They calculate their relative position.
This comparison circuit evolved to grasp advantageous positions in survival competition. But in modern times, it has become the source of endless desire.
In other words, this proverb accurately describes structural dissatisfaction built into humans. It’s produced by the dual mechanisms of the brain’s adaptation function and comparison function.
Lessons for Today
This proverb teaches you how to deal wisely with desire. The important thing is not to deny having desires themselves.
Ambition enriches life. But it’s also important not to lose sight of the value of what you have now.
Specifically, when you achieve a goal, stop for a moment before moving to the next one.
Remember how much you wanted what you now have. From the perspective of your past self, your current self is already successful enough.
Also, spend as much time looking sideways and down as you do looking up. The people you envy have their own troubles.
And there are people who envy you. Comparison is unavoidable.
But by diversifying the direction of comparison, you gain a balanced perspective.
This proverb isn’t telling you not to have desires. It’s teaching you to be aware of your desires and have the strength not to be controlled by them.
Look toward the next goal while still feeling fulfilled in this present moment. Having this kind of mental space might be the path to true richness.
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