笑門来福 (shōmonraifuku)”Good fortune comes to a happy home”

The kanji in this phrase are:

= laughing, smiling

= gate, door

= comes

= good luck

In other words, good luck will come to the door of those who are smiling.

This phrase is an abbreviation of 笑う門には福来る (warau mon ni wa fuku kuru).

Shortened to 笑門来福, it becomes a 四字熟語 (よじじゅくご、yo-ji-juku-go), or Japanese 4-character idiom. As the name suggests, these are idiomatic phrases made of 4 kanji.

There are thousands of them, and they often contain a small life lesson or moral message, similar to English sayings such as “you reap what you sow” and “the early bird gets the worm”.

Leave a comment