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How does 丼勘定 {どんぶりかんじょう} (sloppy accounting) related to 丼 {どんぶり} (bowl of rice
with toppings)? I mean, why どんぶり of all foods and things? Was there special
history for the origin of this set phrase?
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2011-08-25T03:16:24.583
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2011-08-25T03:23:26.043
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question
etymology set-phrases
Why is there 丼 {どんぶり} in 丼勘定 {どんぶりかんじょう}?
First, let's be a bit more precise. saiga-jp.com [gives](http://www.saiga-
jp.com/cgi-
bin/dic.cgi?m=search&sc=0&f=0&j=%E4%B8%BC&g=&e=&s=&rt=0&start=1&sid=1314242595_34874)

丼 a china bowl

丼勘定 sloppy accounting, spending money unsystematically

i.e. the character refers to the bowl itself directly, and only by extension
to food served in such a bowl.

Seems to me like it's a metaphor, and a fairly arbitrarily selected one. You
might as well ask why English speakers "hit the nail on the head", as opposed
to (doing anything else properly), when they get something right. 勘 has
meanings like 'intuition' and 定 like 'determine', so (my guess!) the metaphor
is of putting all the numbers (receipts?) into a bowl, swirling them around
and pulling out a result that looks right.
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2011-08-25T03:28:39.323
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2011-08-25T03:28:39.323
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Judging by the following link, どんぶり in this phrase didn't originally refer to
the bowl, but a pocket in the front of an apron, where money was kept:
<http://gogen-allguide.com/to/donburikanjyou.html>

If someone was throwing all the incoming money into one pocket and fishing out
change for customers from same, they probably didn't have a great idea at any
one time of how much they had or any way of keeping track.

<http://www.samue.co.jp/shop/haori/ooedo4/ooedo4.html> \- this has an Edo-
style "どんぶり" for a little visual reference (you'll note they use どんぶり勘定 with
the hiragana).
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2011-08-25T11:13:10.880
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