Idiom Attic

けんかを売る [kenka wo uru] (lit: to sell a fight)

to pick a fight

In England if you want a fight all you have to do is go looking for one and eventually somebody will oblige; in Japan they're actually a marketable commodity. I wonder if they were historically in short supply or high demand?

I was going to illustrate this with a frame from the Ranma manga, but I don't have access to it here so you'll have to imagine it...