Talk:Japanese clans

Ashina, Ishida, Tsugaru clans
all links to non-clan pages.
 * I've removed the link to Ashina. But I don't know if there is a clan in Japan with the same name. So i changed it to Ashina clan--Ugur Basak 11:28, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

For the time being, the list in this article seems redundant with the Japanese Clan Category list. It could be deleted... But then the article itself becomes void. It seems difficult to fill up by interesting stuff, however. If anyone has any idea... Tensaibuta 14:41, 24 May 2006 (UTC)


 * should all these dead links be removed? --Kuuzo 17:44, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

What is this page actually about?
Since "[clan]" is in itself quite a multi-faceted term, taking different meanings within the boundaries of different societies (and languages), I can't help but wonder what constitutes a "clan" in Japan in the first place. Also, it feels odd to me that no link to Japanese Wikipedia is given. So, is "Japanese clan" a translation from a Japanese concept, or is it a category created by non-Japanese observers? And what do the Japanese think of the category itself? Rafu 13:06, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
 * I've added the link from Japanese Wikipedia. "Clan" is the most common translation of the Japanese character 氏 (shi or uji) and refers primarily to samurai extended families. Though there are connotations to the choice of the English word and nuances of meaning between it and "family" or other alternative terms, it is perfectly normal within Japanese to speak of samurai clans (氏族shizoku, "clan families"). Clan identity was of great importance, relating to one's connections to the past (and to great warriors or rulers of the past), relationships to other families of power or prestige (just like European noble families intermarrying), and the like. LordAmeth 19:05, 11 July 2007 (UTC)


 * In most cases, I would prefer "house" to "clan" in the Japanese case. Or would you speak of the "Tudor clan" or the "Habsburg clan" in the European case? "Clan" would be called shizoku 氏族 in Japanese. However, this term is usually not applied to the aristocratic families in the list of seishi 姓氏. The page Japanese clans should therefore be linked to Japanese uji 氏 and take up information from there. (Bescheid, author of German Wikipedia, 6 August 2008)

Second, especially in light of plenty of English language and Japanese scholarship which talks about how "clan" is inappropriate/does not use the word "clan". Many articles on the English Wikipedia even define "clan" as a "Japanese kin group" anyway. Itsabooknotacourse (talk) 21:19, 22 June 2021 (UTC)

Hashiji clan?
I was revising the Spanish translation of this article when I noticed this word -Hashiji-, and upon checking the source article on the English Wikipedia (this one) I realized the word appears in this article too.

I would like to know whether the term "Hashiji Clan" is actually used by non-Japanese historians to refer to the 土師氏 (Haji-shi, or house/clan of Haji). Is the term "Hashiji" correct, or is it a typo in the translation from Japanese? When I go to the Japanese Wikipedia I can clearly see that the name of this house is "Haji" + "Shi", but I wouldn't want to change it in the article without confirmation from someone with some Japanese History knowledge...

Merci bien, --Lulumeow (talk) 14:00, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Orphaned references in Japanese clans
I check pages listed in Category: Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in Wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Japanese clans's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "Saeki": From Japanese name: Saeki, Shizuka. "First Name Terms." Look Japan. June 2001. Volume 47, No. 543. p. 35. From Kofun period: Saeki (1981) 

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT ⚡ 22:57, 13 July 2017 (UTC)