建たて前まえ (tatemae)

本音ほんねと建たて前まえは違ちがうことが多おおいよ。

What people think and say are often different.

建て前と本音は別だ.

There are differences between people's stated principles and their real intentions.

あの人は建て前と本音がまったく違う.

There's a big gap [difference] between what he says and what he is really thinking [between his words and his real intentions, between his public position and his private intentions].

漢訳仏典という用語の通り、たとえ偽経であったとしても、建て前として「○○代翻経三蔵△△訳」のように記すのが、漢訳仏典の常識である。

As the term Chinese-translated Buddhist scriptures suggests, even if it is apocryphal, it is the convention for Chinese-translated scriptures to write, as a matter of form, 'Translated by Tripitaka Master ___ of the ___ Dynasty'.

小姓は、主君に近侍して雑務や日常生活に必要な取り次ぎをすることが主な仕事となっていくが、建て前上の役目の第一は、将軍・藩主などの主君の警護である。

Although the primary duty of a Kosho was to guard their lord, the main duties of a Kosho were to serve closely to their lord, doing daily chores and arranging visits by acting as a go-between delivering messages.

幕府は将軍家の家政機関であると言う建て前上、幕閣の要職には、幕末及び越智松平家の例外を除き譜代大名以外からは、登用しない慣行が不文律として厳格に守られた。

As the shogunate was supposedly the household manager of the shogun family, there was such a strictly abided unwritten rule that all important posts of the shogunate went to fudai daimyo, except for the cases of the bakumatsu period (the last days of the shogunate) and the Ochi-Matsudaira family.

五番立で演能する際、五番目がめでたい曲（祝言能）ではなく暗い内容の能である場合は、『高砂(能)（たかさご）』等、神能ものの後場のみを演じ（後半部分のみ演ずることを半能という）、めでたい気分で納めるのが建て前であった。

For a Noh performance with the five dramas, if the fifth drama is not happy (celebratory Noh) but is dark content, then the second half of a god Noh such as "Takasago" will be performed (It is called a half Noh because only the second half is performed) so that a happy ending supposedly comes to the end.