KW02 Proverb Line
うりいえとからようでかくさんだいめ
売り家と唐様で書く三代目
Uriietokarayōdekakusandaime
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Meaning
the third generation sells the house
A wry saying that a house the founder built through hard work is ruined by the third generation, who lives for pleasure. Used to mock an heir who is hopeless at business but first-rate at hobbies.
Example
ワインの蘊蓄ばかりで経営に身の入らない三代目を見ると、売り家と唐様で書く三代目という川柳を思い出す。
Seeing a third-generation owner who can talk about wine endlessly but puts no effort into running the company, I think of the senryū about the heir who writes "house for sale" in elegant Chinese script.
Origin
Originally a senryū. The ruined third-generation heir puts the house up for sale, but the characters on the "house for sale" sign are written stylishly in karayō, a Chinese-style calligraphy fashionable among Edo-period scholars. The joke is that the handwriting reveals a life spent absorbed in the leisure arts while the business was neglected.