expression, noun
not keeping up with the times; being out of touch with change
Idiomatic expression from a classical Chinese parable about a man who marked his boat to find a lost sword, ignoring the boat's movement. Used to criticize someone who clings to outdated methods or fails to adapt to changing circumstances. Rare and literary.
「刻舟」は、時代の変化に気づかず古い考えに固執することを批判する故事成語だ。
'刻舟' is a classical idiom that criticizes clinging to old ideas without noticing the changing times.
From a classical Chinese story in the Lüshi Chunqiu: a man drops his sword overboard and marks the boat's side to remember the spot, forgetting that the boat has moved. The idiom 刻舟求剣 (kè zhōu qiú jiàn) was shortened to 刻舟 in Japanese, used to describe rigid thinking that ignores changing conditions.