Question about supposedly a Japanese proverb


I came across to this sentence:

> The Japanese say you have three faces. The first face, you show to the
> world. The second face, you show to your close friends, and your family. The
> third face, you never show anyone. It is the truest reflection of who you
> are.

I would like to know what is the actual word in Japanese? is it true?




「顔」 itself has a metaphorical meaning just as described in that paragraph. One
can have more than one face in phrases/sentences like these:

> 表の顔と裏の顔 (lit. "front face and back face". The face you show to the world,
> and your inner side.)
>
> 彼は別の顔を持っている (lit. "He has another face". He has a secret hobby, or he is
> famous in two different fields, or he is a spy sent from an enemy, ...)
>
> アマゾンはクラウド企業としての顔も有している。 (lit. "Amazon also has a face as a cloud company.")

I think I occasionally see expressions like "女は2つの顔を持つ (Women are two-faced)"
in Japanese literature. However, having more than two faces is rare, and I
can't think of the Japanese proverb that exactly matches "Every person has
_three_ faces".




It's actually an observation of the Japanese people written by a Jesuit
missionary:

> "[The Japanese people] are so crafty in their hearts that nobody can
> understand them. Whence it is said that they have three hearts: a false one
> in their mouths for all the world to see, another within their breasts only
> for their friends, and the third in the depths of their hearts, reserved for
> themselves alone and never manifested to anybody."

From _História da Igreja do Japão vol I pg 173_ , written by Father João
Rodrigues, SJ.

