Welcome to Kimetsu no Japanese, a site for learning Japanese from a manga Demon Slayer.
Today’s topic
VOL.7 Ch.59
Tanjiro Kamado (竈門 炭治郎)
人の心の中に土足で踏み入るなYou can’t go stomping around inside people’s hearts!
Reference source : 五峠呼世晴 (2017) 鬼滅の刃7 集英社
Reference source : KOYOHARU GOTOUGE. (2019). DEMON SLAYER : KIMETSU NO YAIBA VOLUME 7. VIZ Media, LL
Lesson
| JPN | 人の心の中に土足で踏み入るな |
| JPN♪ | hito no kokoro no naka ni dosoku de humi iruna |
| ENG | Never walk down into the other’s hearts with your shoes on. |
| WORD | JPN♪ | MEANING |
|---|---|---|
| 人 | hito | a person, people, other(s) |
| の | no | of |
| 心 | kokoro | heart |
| 中に | naka ni | into |
| 土足で | dosoku de | with one’s shoes on |
| 踏み入るな | humi-iruna | 踏み入る : to walk down into な : negative particle |
Explanation 1 | Cultural meaning of 土足 (dosoku)
It’s probably known to the world that in Japan people enter a house with their shoes off. It’s one of Japanese culture and it’s so a natural thing. If you enter the house with your shoes on, the floor may get dirty and people think you have a bad manner and at the same time, they will be very shocked.
Entering someone’s house with your shoes on will definitely make the host feeling humiliated.
土足で踏み入る doesn’t have only literal meaning but also means “ to humiliate someone for entering his/her personal place brutally”.
In a Japanese drama (modern, samurai period whatever), I notice when brutal people are stomping around into the house, a camerawork often switchs to a footage angle and picks out boots beating clear floorings. A few of such an image are enough to tell an awful invasion and disrespectful behavior.
Explanation 2 | Negative particle “na”
Imperative negative particle “na” can be attached to almost all the verbs.
Come 来る (Kuru) – Don’t come 来るな (kuruna)
Run 走る (Hashiru) – Don’t run (hashiruna)
“na” is a strong word and usually people may like to use milder expressions, like “konaide” not “kuruna”, “hashiranaide” not “hashiruna”.
That’s all
土足(dosoku)、this expression has a deep meaning relating to Japanese culture!
I hope you understand Tanjiro’s anger from this word.
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