“If you play with fire, you’ll wet the bed.”
This is an old saying in Japan that was used to stop children from playing with fire.
Of course, it does not mean that playing with fire actually causes bed-wetting. It is better understood as an old-fashioned warning meant to keep children away from something dangerous.
A local history of Kuma in Ehime Prefecture records the saying that playing with fire will cause bed-wetting and explains that it was meant to discourage children from playing with fire. Similar sayings have also been recorded in folklore materials from other parts of Japan.
Playing with fire can cause more than a minor burn. A small flame can grow into a house fire and put family members and neighbors at risk.
But simply telling a young child that fire is dangerous may not always be enough to make them stop.
So adults linked fire play with something unpleasant and easy for a child to understand: “If you do that, you’ll wet the bed.” Bed-wetting was something children could easily imagine and would usually want to avoid, which likely made the warning more memorable.
In the past, children in Japan were sometimes told that something unpleasant would happen if they behaved badly or did something dangerous. Similar sayings were used to discourage wasting food, mistreating animals, or making noise at night.
That does not mean children across Japan are still taught this today. Even among people who know the saying, it is generally not taken as a literal belief that fire causes bed-wetting. It is closer to an old warning used to make children think twice before playing with fire.
So the saying is not really about a mysterious connection between fire and bed-wetting. It is an old form of discipline that linked dangerous play with a consequence a child would want to avoid.
References
- Ehime Prefectural Lifelong Learning Center, Database: Memories of Ehime — Kuma Town History
- International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Database of Folklore Concerning Strange Phenomena and Yōkai
