How to Read “If you lie, Lord Enma will pull out your tongue”
Uso wo iu to enma-sama ni shita wo nukareru
Meaning of “If you lie, Lord Enma will pull out your tongue”
This proverb warns that lying always brings punishment. It emphasizes how serious lying is by saying that Lord Enma, an absolute authority, is always watching. The punishment is certain and unavoidable.
People mainly used this saying to teach children the importance of honesty. When parents or teachers said “If you lie, Lord Enma will pull out your tongue,” they made invisible moral rules concrete and easy to understand.
Today, even though the religious background has faded, this proverb still conveys a universal truth. It teaches that lying always has consequences. A lie might seem to protect you temporarily, but it ultimately destroys trust and causes greater harm. This life lesson remains relevant today.
Origin and Etymology
This proverb comes from the combination of Buddhist concepts of hell and Japanese folk beliefs. Lord Enma is like a judge who evaluates the deeds of the dead in the afterlife. In Buddhism, there are various torments in hell, including the “Tongue-Pulling Hell” where liars have their tongues pulled out.
Before Lord Enma stands a special mirror called the “Mirror of Clarity.” This mirror reflects all the deeds from one’s life. No matter how hard you try to hide them, lies are always exposed. This belief became widely used in moral education for children.
What’s interesting is that Lord Enma specifically targets the tongue for punishment. The tongue is the organ that produces words and directly creates the sin of lying. That’s why pulling out the tongue became such a concrete and terrifying punishment.
During the Edo period, statues of Lord Enma were placed in temple grounds. People could actually see his frightening appearance. With his red face, wide-open eyes, and stern expression, Lord Enma left a strong impression on children’s hearts. This served as a powerful deterrent against lying.
Interesting Facts
Lord Enma actually has a kind side too. According to legend, during Obon, the lid of hell’s cauldron opens and the souls can rest. This shows that Lord Enma has compassion, giving even sinners a break once a year.
Lord Enma also keeps a ledger called the “Enma Register.” It records all the good and bad deeds of every person. Even today, the term “Enma Register” is sometimes used to mean “important records.”
Usage Examples
- When I was a child, my grandmother told me so many times that if you lie, Lord Enma will pull out your tongue. Even now, I’m scared to lie.
- You should assume that even small lies will always be discovered. The saying “If you lie, Lord Enma will pull out your tongue” is really true.
Universal Wisdom
This proverb has been passed down for hundreds of years because humans have always faced the temptation to lie. Lying is an all-too-easy way to escape difficult situations. If you tell the truth, you might get scolded, embarrassed, or lose something. In those moments, bending the facts just a little could make things easier. This temptation never disappears, no matter how times change.
Our ancestors deeply understood this human weakness. That’s why they didn’t just say “don’t lie.” They brought in Lord Enma, an absolute authority. You might deceive human eyes, but you can’t deceive Lord Enma’s eyes. You might hide things in this world, but you’ll definitely be judged in the next. By introducing this transcendent perspective, they tried to plant moral roots deep in people’s hearts.
What’s interesting is that the punishment is concrete and painful: having your tongue pulled out. This isn’t abstract guilt. It makes you imagine the cost of lying as physical terror. Humans aren’t creatures who move by logic alone. We can’t change our behavior just by understanding with our heads. We need to fear it in our hearts and feel it in our bodies. This proverb contains deep insight into human psychology.
When AI Hears This
The punishment of having your tongue pulled out for lying is surprisingly well-designed as what game theory calls a “commitment device.” A commitment device is a mechanism that deliberately limits your future choices to gain trust from others.
What matters is that this punishment is “irreversible.” For example, you can pay a fine and be done with it, but once your tongue is pulled out, it never grows back. In game theory, this irreversibility is critically important. Humans easily break promises they can later undo. In fact, economist Thomas Schelling won the Nobel Prize for analyzing strategies that gain advantage in negotiations by cutting off your own escape routes.
Even more interesting is the existence of Lord Enma as a “perfect monitor.” Humans might not detect lies, but Lord Enma is designed to catch every single one. This is the same concept that modern blockchain technology aims for: “tamper-proof records.” In other words, because lies will always be discovered, being honest from the start becomes the rational choice.
The brilliance of this system is that tongues don’t actually need to be pulled out. Just believing they “might be” makes the cost of lying infinitely high, making honesty the only optimal strategy. Pre-modern societies used religion as a device to construct a surprisingly sophisticated trust system.
Lessons for Today
What this proverb teaches you today is that integrity is the most powerful survival strategy. In our age of social media, even small lies can instantly spread to many people. Lord Enma’s Mirror of Clarity may no longer be in the afterlife. It might be modern society itself.
But this isn’t something to fear. Rather, it means the value of living honestly has increased. When you decide not to lie, you’re freed from the burden of memory. You don’t need to remember what you said or what you told whom. Truth is always one thing, so you can live simply.
Most importantly, being honest protects your own heart. Every time you lie, a small wound forms somewhere in your heart. When these accumulate, you can’t trust yourself anymore. Living honestly is the surest way to maintain peace in your own heart. Don’t live in fear of Lord Enma. Choose a way of life you can be proud of.
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