藪やぶの中なか

や

ぶ

の

な

か

Meanings

mystery due to conflicting accounts; unknown truth; in a grove (literal)

Idiomatic phrase from Akutagawa Ryūnosuke's short story 'In a Grove' (藪の中). Used when conflicting testimonies make the truth unknowable. The literal meaning 'in a grove' is rarely used outside the title.

この事じ件けんはまさに藪やぶの中なかだ。
This case is truly a mystery with conflicting accounts.
目もく撃げき者しゃの話はなしが食くい違ちがっていて、何なにが真しん実じつか藪やぶの中なかだ。
The witnesses' stories contradict each other; the truth is unknown.

See all 8 example sentences ›

Kanji

藪thicket, bush, underbrush
中in, inside, middle
薮thicket, bush, underbrush

Related words

羅ら生しょう門もん
Another Akutagawa story title used idiomatically, but 羅生門 refers to a situation where people's selfish motives are exposed, while 藪の中 refers to the impossibility of knowing the truth due to conflicting perspectives.

Built from

藪やぶ+中なか

Written forms

藪やぶの中なかUsage100%
Standard kanji spelling; the phrase is widely recognized from Akutagawa's story.
薮やぶの中なか
Variant kanji form using 薮 instead of 藪; less common but still encountered.

Etymology

From the title of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's 1922 short story '藪の中' (In a Grove), in which multiple characters give contradictory accounts of a crime, leaving the truth unknowable. The phrase became an idiom for situations where conflicting testimonies obscure the facts.