Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Japan/Archive/May 2009

National Treasures
Hi! I started to create a list of National Treasures here. My plan is to cover all architectural treasures in table form. Please let me know what you think about the layout or anything else concerning the list. It would be great if somebody would join in this project as there are around 200 of those treasures. bamse (talk) 08:17, 14 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Hi, have you had a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:National_Treasures_of_Japan Bryan MacKinnon (talk) 13:21, 14 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Also, have you seen National Treasures of Japan? Do you plan on integrating your sandbox with this article, or do you plan on making a new list? -- T orsodo g Talk 13:23, 14 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, I am aware of the category and National Treasures of Japan. Neither provides a complete list of national treasures though. The list on my sandbox also provides additional information like location and picture (more could be added, "coordinates" for instance. suggestions welcome). The whole list would make the article too long, so I was going to split it off into List of National Treasures of Japan or possibly even further into List of National Treasures of Japan (Shrines), List of National Treasures of Japan (Temples) and so on. While working on the list, I was wondering:
 * How often is the list updated (the current list is from November 2008)? Are there big changes if it is updated?
 * How is the list organised? As an example have a look at the "residential national treasures". Sorry I cannot link to the list, so here is how to get there: If you go to the list of architecture/structure National Treasure here (click the second blue box in the first line under "category") you get a list showing how many national treasures are temples,shrines,... Select the category "residential" (the fourth item in the list with "14").
 * Now you see 14 items in the list. However some of them belong to the same compound, for instance you have Silver Pavilion (銀閣) and Tōgu-dō (東求堂) which are both part of Jishō-ji (慈照寺). On the other hand if you click on Nijō Castle (二条城) you get to a sublist of structures, some of which are national treasures by themselves. My question is; why are the two structures of Jishō-ji listed in the list of 14 while the structures of Nijō Castle are listed in the sublist? Is there some fundamental difference? bamse (talk) 23:55, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

[resetting indent] Great job you are tackling. There's a quarterly Council meeting where they discuss agendas including additions (and deletions too, I imagine). Last year, there were meetings held in April, July, October and December, so the bottom line frequency is four times a year. How fast and often they update the database entry is maybe another question.

On the top of the database page, there's a message in Japanese which says: 「表示件数は、指定・登録件数と異なります. 指定・登録件数については、以下のページを参照ください. 」, meaning The numbers shown in the database is not necessarily the number of the registered or designated, so you should follow this link, summary of numbers of designations, as of April 1, 2009

When you look at the April 2009 summary, in the "architecture" you'll see there are 214 件, meaning entries, that covers (262 棟) buildings. Apparently there are some entries that covers multiple buildings. A recent designation of 2008 for 青井阿蘇神社 in Kumamoto prefecture, for example, covered 5 buildings in one file.

When it comes to how they are put into the database --- I'm just guessing --- it was only for the ease of navigation they made those at 二条城 into a sublist. At the end you will have to click and check all those separate database entries to find out which one is a National Treasure and which one is an Important Cultural Property. In case of 二条城, only the first 6 in the sublist are actually National Treasures.

As a comment, I think it'll be nice to spare one column for "remarks" to make a very, very brief description of what the listed object is, especially when there's no article yet for that object.

Another point: I'm not sure if it will be feasible to have a picture for every entry when the list gets long (the one for temples could be, don't know exactly), and if that won't be a problem for users viewing with narrow band connection.

Hope this helps. --Mantokun (talk) 01:25, 15 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Very helpful indeed. Thanks a lot. I had hoped there were no deletions at least. But probably they would be published somewhere, so updating the list should not be a problem.
 * As for the multiple entries, if my counting is correct, I end up with 210 (combined) entries and not 214. I guess, the safest way is to list each of the 262 (or so) buildings separately and have an extra column (or footnote?) for the compound it belongs to. How about this (possibly remove the picture column for long lists)? If there are separate lists for temples, shrines, etc, the "Classification" column could disappear as well.

bamse (talk) 03:02, 15 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I finished the first list ... castles. Please have a look here. Are there any major mistakes? Various English names (keep/tower/pavilion/...) are used for the structures. I am not sure if I picked the most common ones in all cases. bamse (talk) 04:33, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Looks great! For Matsumoto Castle's Moon-viewing tower, you can use this photo. It's the part of the building with the red railing, unless I'm mistaken. Fg2 (talk) 05:14, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I added the picture and also the same picture for the tatsumi tsukeyagura. How do I make a caption which is visible when you hover with the mouse above the picture? Is the listname ok or are there better alternatives: "List of National Treasures of Japan Buildings-Castles",...? bamse (talk) 06:47, 16 April 2009 (UTC)


 * The corridors at Himeji Castle (いろはに) can probably be translated as A, B, C, D or 1, 2, 3, 4 -- does this sound reasonable? Fg2 (talk) 07:03, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
 * It sounds reasonable. Do you have a source where they are referred to like that? I can only find i-ro-ha-ni. Also completed User:Bamse/List of National Treasures of Japan (Residential). Next will be shrines. That should take some time. bamse (talk) 08:22, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

The following lists are now in the article space:
 * List of National Treasures of Japan (residences)
 * List of National Treasures of Japan (castles)
 * List of National Treasures of Japan (shrines)
 * List of National Treasures of Japan (miscellaneous structures) bamse (talk) 04:26, 20 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Very nice. It might as well be useful to have on each pages, a small mention (at the end of the lead-in maybe?) visible that there are other categories too, so that readers are made aware there're other lists they may want to look into. (eg. On the "Residential" list article tell readers that lists for Castles, Shrines and Others are also available.) --Mantokun (talk) 14:07, 20 April 2009 (UTC)


 * The other lists are introduced at the end of the lead-in now. I also created Category:Lists of National Treasures of Japan. bamse (talk) 00:49, 21 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Also finished List of National Treasures of Japan (temples). bamse (talk) 08:08, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

As an extra, I also compiled User:Bamse/National Treasures of Japan (Historical Documents) which I will move to List of National Treasures of Japan (historical materials) as soon as the map gets fixed. bamse (talk) 05:44, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
 * done! bamse (talk) 23:17, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Working on List of National treasures of Japan (ancient documents) now. Feel free to add to the list or correct mistakes. I am looking for a set of categories for the "type" column. Any suggestions? bamse (talk) 05:09, 30 April 2009 (UTC)
 * done! bamse (talk) 04:55, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

Help Moving Image to Commons
Could someone help me move Yubari river Numanosawa.jpg from JA Wiki to commons? imars (talk) 13:24, 4 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I moved it any included it in the Yubari River article. -- T orsodo g Talk 14:19, 4 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Can you help me move one more, 赤岩青巌峡.jpg, for Mu River (Hokkaidō)?imars (talk) 21:08, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

Articles for deletion/Hoshino Fuuta
This debate is in need of some manga specialists who can find sources about the subject. (I've removed some POV from the article, but we still need help to establish notability without a doubt. - Mgm|(talk) 08:30, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Shinigami in popular culture
Shinigami in popular culture has been nominated for deletion at AfD 06:07, 7 May 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.66.202.139 (talk)

Kanji help requested
Could someone help with adding Kanji to the following new articles I started today along with links to the equivalent articles in the Japanese Wikipedia?

Cla68 (talk) 08:03, 7 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Tainan Air Group
 * Kenji Okabe‎
 * Sadamu Komachi‎
 * Masao Sasakibara‎
 * Ichirō Yamamoto‎
 * Yoshimi Minami‎
 * Yoshinao Kodaira‎


 * Oda Mari beat me to the Air Group article, and I added the kanji for Komachi, the only one of the names I could find on ja.wiki. None of these pilots seem to have articles. Even Komachi doesn't have an article. He is only mentioned as one of Tetsuzō Iwamoto's men in Iwamoto's ja.wiki article. TomorrowTime (talk) 11:17, 7 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I tried typing okabe kenji and converting to Japanese; Windows came up with 岡部健二. When I added 海軍 and searched using Google, a couple dozen promising hits came up, but the sources don't look reliable. Still, it seems plausible. Fg2 (talk) 11:46, 7 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Typing komachi sadamu gave 小町定. Although the Japanese Wikipedia has no article on him, it does mention him in a couple of articles. Fg2 (talk) 11:49, 7 May 2009 (UTC)


 * The Fuchu Library here lists him as the author of 「零戦三機も海底に沈めた思い出」 (title #24). Fg2 (talk) 11:53, 7 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Yamamoto Ichiro: a Google search for 山本一郎 海軍 yielded this page, which lists 「山本一郎少尉（スコア１１機）」 and is pretty clearly the same pilot. Fg2 (talk) 12:07, 7 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Kodaira Yoshinao: This oddball blog lists what appears to be the crew of a carrier. Is it in Chinese? There's an entry for 小平義直 飛曹長. Fg2 (talk) 12:24, 7 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Masao Sasakibara must be 佐々木原正夫. 佐々木原正夫+海軍 G search gave me this. This information page on war-related books has 佐々木原 and 小町. Oda Mari (talk) 14:33, 7 May 2009 (UTC)
 * The link provided by Fg2 turned out to be a gold mine. I found 繰練３０期の南義美飛曹長（スコア１５機）、繰練４３期の小平好直飛曹長（スコア１１機）、繰練５０期の山本一郎飛曹長（１１機) and ミッドウェー海戦の前からこれらの空母に配乗していたエースには岩本中尉（前述）や南大尉（スコア１５機）、小町定飛曹長（前述）、佐々木原正夫少尉（スコア１２機：終戦時生存）、山本一郎少尉（スコア１１機）、小平好直少尉（１１機：戦後航空自衛隊）などがいたが岩本中尉と南大尉が教官／教員配置で移動した後... on the page. Yoshimi Minami/南義美 and Yoshinao Kodaira/小平好直. But is it 義直 or 好直? Oda Mari (talk) 14:58, 7 May 2009 (UTC)
 * G search result of 小平好直少尉+海軍 was . Probably 好直, not 義直. Oda Mari (talk) 15:09, 7 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure which of these kanji to place in the articles, but I appreciate the effort to try to help. Cla68 (talk) 03:20, 8 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I placed them. Oda Mari (talk) 04:55, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks again. Cla68 (talk) 06:57, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Japan by decade articles
Currently, 1980s in Japan is up for deletion (though it looks like it's going to be kept). In order to make sure the articles are consistent and to make it easier to create them by knowing what information should be included, I think we need to come up with an acceptable structure for the articles. Here are some examples of similar articles for other countries:
 * UK, individual year articles for the same decade: 1980 - 1981 - 1982 - 1983 - 1984 - 1985 - 1986 - 1987 - 1988 - 1989 (no decade article that I can find)
 * US, individual year articles: 1977 in the United States - 1980 in the United States -2000 in the United States
 * 1980s in Angola
 * 1980s in Hong Kong
 * 1980s in Zimbabwe

It seems that most countries don't have articles by decade, but rather by year. I think it would be good to have individual year articles, then have a decade article which summarizes the information in the ten articles in that decade. Thoughts? Ideas? ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:47, 7 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I should note that I really like the information (well sourced, too!) in the Angola article, and the Hong Kong article has a good general structure. I suspect the creator of the 1980s in Japan article was modeling after the Angola article. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 22:00, 7 May 2009 (UTC)


 * If 1980s in Japan is kept, it should be completely rewritten. I agree that a structure like the one in the Hong Kong article is a useful framework, but the introduction to that article is similar to the opinion I removed from 1980s in Japan, and has the same journalistic (not encyclopedic) style of writing, as well as oddball emphasis on some supposed international perception of politics. If the author of the article sticks to facts, selects them carefully and provides sources, there won't be serious discussion about deleting them. But presently, 1980s in Japan has an opening sentence that purports to discuss the economy, but after dismissing automobiles continues with what were then minor blips (in comparison to automobiles, finance, and audio-video equipment) like Famicom and anime. Then there's a whole paragraph (one of three in the main text) on gaming equipment, one on the economy (I think, although it also mentions the death of the Emperor), and one on pro wrestling. We learn that salarymen were purchasing golf equipment in the hopes of achieving material wealth, and that the Japanese forced the U.S. car manufacturers out of business in the 1980s. (That's not how I remember it.) I don't mind if the article is kept, as long as its contents are substantially deleted. A new article with the structure of the Hong Kong article could be a fine model for a series on decades. Fg2 (talk) 23:52, 7 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Technically, the lead should be the last thing written, after the rest is done as it should introduce everything major (and some minor items) in the article. I garee that it really needs a lot of work, though, but I think they could be useful and interesting summaries of the important things from each decade. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 03:36, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

I would suggest to start with the structure and the relevant content from the article Post-Occupation Japan, and rename the present article to Video Games and Wrestling in Japan in the 1980s. Cs32en 16:52, 9 May 2009 (UTC)
 * But we are wanting to have it be a general overview of Japan in the 1980s, not a video game and wrestling article. ALL of us agree the current article is poorly done, but throwing out bizarre suggestions like that is not useful. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 06:00, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Cherry blossom
There's yet another incredibly stupid nationalist spat over at Cherry blossom on whether cherry blossom watching is or is not indigenous to South Korea. Cool heads are invited to step in. Jpatokal (talk) 05:11, 8 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Can we just shoot them all, on both sides? These stupid spats are getting really old. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 06:54, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Another Kanji request
I just found this article which needs the Kanji. Cla68 (talk) 14:50, 8 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Done. Oda Mari (talk) 15:17, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you again. Cla68 (talk) 05:17, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

New articles
The Project page has a list of new articles, but it hasn't been updated in some time. In case you're wondering why, a notice on the talk page of the bot says "The owner is on vacation until May 12." Fg2 (talk) 09:32, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Concrete-encased high school girl murder
The article Concrete-encased high school girl murder needs sourcing as there are living people involved and it could be a BLP concern. WhisperToMe (talk) 20:31, 9 May 2009 (UTC)
 * That name is terrible. Why not Murder of Junko Furuta? Jpatokal (talk) 02:09, 11 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I agree. Done. The article does need some work, however. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:57, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Kanji help
I am struggling with readings of names of historical documents, for instance: 文覚四十五箇条起請文 (=Priest/Monk Mongaku ???) and 与中峰明本尺贖 (= ? chūhō myōhon ??). What are there correct readings and how to translate them into English (if at all)? It would be great if somebody could have a look at the "name" column of User:Bamse/National Treasures of Japan (Ancient Documents) to see if I got the other readings right. bamse (talk) 07:42, 11 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Starting with Mongaku, see the Kyoto National Museum's page complete with handprint. Translation but no transcription of the name. Fg2 (talk) 08:02, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks. bamse (talk) 08:22, 11 May 2009 (UTC)


 * A Google search for 与中峰明本尺贖 turns up ... User:Bamse's subpage. Fg2 (talk)
 * Oops, should have been: 趙子昂書 (与中峰明本尺贖). bamse (talk) 08:22, 11 May 2009 (UTC)


 * 文覚四十五箇条起請文 is probably Mongaku yonjūgokajō kishōmon. Oda Mari (talk) 10:30, 11 May 2009 (UTC)


 * ja:島津家文書 [[File:Check mark 23x20 02.svg]] Fg2 (talk) 10:58, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * ja:海部氏系図 [[File:Check mark 23x20 02.svg]] 11:01, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * ポルトガル国印度副王信書 [[File:Check mark 23x20 02.svg]] 11:03, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * 越中国官倉納穀交替記残巻 Can we change the spacing? 11:07, 11 May 2009 (UTC) That'd be fine with me. bamse (talk) 07:17, 12 May 2009 (UTC)
 * 円珍関係文書 [[File:Check mark 23x20 02.svg]] 11:09, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * 円珍贈法印大和尚位並智証大師諡号勅書 Again, I'd suggest changing the spacing 11:12, 11 May 2009 (UTC) Ok bamse (talk) 07:17, 12 May 2009 (UTC)
 * 灌頂歴名 is kanjō rekimei according to Shingon-shū Buzan-ha. 11:25, 11 May 2009 (UTC) Fixed bamse (talk) 07:17, 12 May 2009 (UTC)
 * 亀山天皇宸翰禅林寺御起願文案 Wikipedia romanization adds an apostrophe: mon'an 11:29, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * 熊野御幸記 [[File:Check mark 23x20 02.svg]] 11:32, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the editing everybody! I fixed some more mistakes, added a little and made the columns sort correctly (I hope it works as expected now.). The list is virtually complete and I cannot find more information to improve it, so I moved it to List of National Treasures of Japan (ancient documents). Feel free to complete the missing items and to change spacing etc in the names. bamse (talk) 07:17, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Does your WikiProject care about talk pages of redirects?
Does your project care about what happens to the talk pages of articles that have been replaced with redirects? If so, please provide your input at User:Mikaey/Request for Input/ListasBot 3. Thanks, Matt (talk) 02:00, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Alternate "User Japan notice" template
Hi all,

I've created a smaller version of the "User Japan notice" template. If you think it is useful, we can probably move it into the template space, either as separate template, or as a format variant of the existing User Japan notice.

Transclusion from my user space:

[NOTICE: The content of that page has changes, as I have moved this to a style variant of the existing template in the template space. Cs32en 22:05, 22 May 2009 (UTC)]

Cs32en 14:18, 7 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Feel free to move it to Template:User Japan notice 2 if you wish. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 07:43, 8 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I have put a parameter ("size") into the existing template User Japan notice. I hope this works for all the user pages where the template is transcluded at present. Cs32en  22:05, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

Katakana question
Hello everyone. For the article Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, I romanized ソウルシルバー as Sōrushirubā, but someone changed it to Sourushirubā. Which is more correct? Thanks. -sesuPRIME talk • contribs 11:53, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * These are two different ways to graphically express the same information. Typically, "ou" is used when the "ō" character is not available. "Sourushirubā" seems inconsistent, given that the "ā" (with macron) is being retained. Editors on any given article should either use macrons or not, but avoid to mix the conventions. See also Romaji. Cs32en  13:11, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * For hiragana, yes, but the example here is katakana, where long vowels are indicated with ー. Sōru would be ソール, but souru with the u pronounced is ソウル, and the changed version is thus correct. Jpatokal (talk) 13:28, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm not a linguist, and given the large variety of romanization schemes, there might well be various possibilities. I am thus not sure whether my approach is the standard approach or not. Hepburn's dictionary, 3rd edition, says "ソウ sō" . We may need some expert opinion on this, and an overall guideline would certainly be a good thing. Cs32en  13:48, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * The weird thing is that it's apparently the English word "soul." If I were to write it in katakana, it would be ソール, not ソウル. Why the producers chose the second over the first is a mystery to me, but the problem then becomes to turn it back into Wikipedia Hepburn. Is the ウ truly pronounced, or is it like the う in the usual long-vowel そう situations? Fg2 (talk) 21:09, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * It's like the う in the usual long-vowel そう situations. My guess is artist license for the reason they chose to "spell" it that way. Same kind of thing as "Krispy Kreme". ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:50, 8 May 2009 (UTC)


 * The producers did not choose the spelling and it is not for artistic license. The Japanese word for "soul" is, among several words, ソウル. It is a common word and may be found in any decent kokugo jisho. It is pronounced, not *, so is not a long vowel. 124.214.131.55 (talk) 02:31, 9 May 2009 (UTC)
 * The best known of these cases being, of course, Seoul 「ソウル」, which is definitely pronounced with a "u". Jpatokal (talk) 05:06, 9 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I've heard Seoul pronounced with a "u" so I agree with that one. My ancient Iwanami let me down, though. It doesn't have ソウル, nor does it have ソール, so I'm unable to check decent print dictionaries. Fg2 (talk) 05:16, 9 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Which Iwanami is that? 広辞苑 has it. Here are a few other dictionaries that you can reference:
 * 日本国語大辞典; fullest description with quotations
 * 大辞林, also available online here, and here
 * 大辞泉, also available online
 * 明鏡
 * 124.214.131.55 (talk) 05:43, 9 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks. That's convincing. Clearly they're talking about the spirit, not just the capital of the Republic of Korea or the genre of music. My old Iwanami dates back to about 1986.


 * Now, I wonder why those katakana are in use. Anyone have any insight? Fg2 (talk) 05:49, 9 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Definitely a belated comment though, Rubber Soul is ラバー・ソウル while rubber sole is ラバー・ソール. Oda Mari (talk) 06:08, 9 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Wow. That surprises me that soul and sole are Nipponized differently. By the way, "Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver" was merged into its parent article. -sesuPRIME talk • contribs 07:34, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Okay, so what's the outcome of this discussion? I ask because a user named Ryulong changed the souru back to sōru (diff here), and I'm not familiar enough with Japanese to fully understand what he meant in the edit summary. -sesuPRIME talk • contribs 19:25, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

What is the reading?
What is the reading of 極限心理解析書 (part of a book title) and 大沼 孝次 (Author name) - From http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4876893853 - It is a dissertation on the themes of Battle Royale WhisperToMe (talk) 13:38, 8 May 2009 (UTC)


 * The book title is Kyokugenshinri kaisekisho and the author name is Ōnuma/大沼 (surname) and Kōji/孝次 (given name). I checked the reading of his name at a National Diet Library page. So it's the correct one. Oda Mari (talk) 13:51, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Help
I need help translating these two objects: トリアナックル や メタルコルトノス

They're supposed to be some sort of concealable hand-to-hand weapon, but I can't think of any reasonable translation for them. Clearly, the first is "Toria" Knuckle and the second Metal "Korutonosu", but I can't find any melee weapons close to those pronunciations - the closest so far is Cestus, which is clearly not the same as "Korutonosu". If any of you have an idea, can you reply to me on my talk page?

Thanks, and sorry if this is in the wrong place - I'm in a real bind here. Not even Mr. Lister's Koromon survived intact. 04:21, 15 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Context please? ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:05, 15 May 2009 (UTC)


 * The search took me to this page. It is impossible to translate fictional weapons especially when you do not know anything about Dejimon. Oda Mari (talk) 05:21, 15 May 2009 (UTC)
 * In this context, at least "Korutonosu" should be an actual type of hand-to-hand weapon, if not both of them - this kind of thing is supposed to be basically "adjective - weapon", and is not one of the off-the-wall poetic name type of things. Not even Mr. Lister's Koromon survived intact. 06:37, 15 May 2009 (UTC)


 * It might be "Koltonus", given the description of Marsmon as having something to do with the 12 gods of Olympus. That would be a Greek word written like this, I believe: κολτονυσ. So a metal koltonus. Not sure what a koltonus is, but there's a picture of a fictional one from a game here: koltonus bowpistol. This is the only thing I could find. Not sure on the Toria Knuckle. I'd just go with Toria Knuckle. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 07:07, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Looking for art lovers
Recently I've been creating a few Lists of National Treasures of Japan covering all buildings/structures that are National Treasures and some of the art categories. Together with User:Bamse/List of National Treasures of Japan (antique materials) which will go to the article space soon, there are about 350 entries in all of these lists. These lists are complete.

I think it would be nice to have a complete list of all of the National Treasure art objects in Japan. What is missing are the following lists: painting (絵画, 157 items), sculptures (彫刻, 126 items), handicraft (工芸品, 252 items), writing/books (書跡・典籍, 223 items). A start is made here but because of the large number of items I am looking for people to join in the project. To do the sculpture list should be rather easy as many of the items have similar or identical names. The main reference I used for the lists is:. If you think it is an interesting project, please drop me a line on my talk page. bamse (talk) 04:54, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Is this a reliable source?
What do you guys know about http://www.lint.co.jp ? Specifically, I'm using http://www.lint.co.jp/e+/LNW/LNW-T06Y20.htm as a source in posting system, and it has been questioned in its FAC. If anyone has any information about the site/company that can establish it as reliable, please post it here or feel free to mention it at the FAC. Thanks! -- T orsodo g Talk 15:52, 15 May 2009 (UTC)
 * It looks like they publish study materials for the TOEIC, as well as at least one magazine on the topic. They have been in business since 1990. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:21, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Special wards, designated cities
The template Regions and administrative divisions of Japan has long listed the 23 special wards of Tokyo as designated cities, but as far as I can tell, they're not. So I removed them. If this was incorrect, please let me know and I'll happily revert my change to the template. Fg2 (talk) 11:05, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

Kanji help (again)
As before, I need some help with readings and translations. It would be great if somebody could have a look at User:Bamse/List of National Treasures of Japan (antique materials). Are all the readings correct? How to translate the untranslated entries (four items) in the "name" column? Also how to translate 考古資料 which will be part of the article name? Most items in the list (but not all) are archeological finds excavated from graves or sutra mounds, etc. Is "antique materials" a good description for 考古資料 or rather "archeological finds" or something else? bamse (talk) 07:47, 18 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Bunka-cho uses "archaeological artifacts " and "historical materials". See page 2. Oda Mari (talk) 09:49, 18 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Or "Archaeological materials". See page 6. Oda Mari (talk) 09:57, 18 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I liked "Archaeological materials" most. bamse (talk) 01:56, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

List of earthquakes
I just converted List of earthquakes in Japan into a sortable table to make it look better and possibly be more useful. Feel free to look it over and make any additions, corrections, or modifications you wish. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 11:13, 18 May 2009 (UTC)
 * You might want to use Template:Dts in the "date" column to conform with the manual of style. Sorting of the "death toll" column does not work as expected. In the magnitude column, there are values on the Richter scale and values on the Moment magnitude scale which are different things by definition. Sorting them by their value gives the wrong impression that they can be compared. Unless there are values available for all earthquakes on either scale, this column should be made unsortable in my opinion. I have a similar problem with the sorting "epicenter" column which has entries of various types (distance values, coordinates, city and place names, words like "near", "northern end",...). With hidden sortkeys this column could be ordered by prefecture-city or something reasonable. bamse (talk) 23:59, 19 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I've made the change on the dates. I've tried playing with the death toll column to fix how it sorts, but I'm not sure what else to do. Maybe the number needs to be added to every entry in that column? I'll try that. As for the epicenter column, that's just what was included in the original article, so I didn't really do much with it. I agree it should be fixed somehow; I'll see what I can do. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:27, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Encarta being discontinued
For any articles which use Encarta, you should be aware of this. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 04:36, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Alleged fabrication of the Nanking Massacre - nominated for deletion
Alleged fabrication of the Nanking Massacre has been nominated for deletion at Articles for deletion/Alleged fabrication of the Nanking Massacre. 76.66.202.139 (talk) 06:04, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Proposal for a 200-WikiProject contest
A proposal has been posted for a contest between all 200 country WikiProjects. We're looking for judges, coordinators, ideas, and feedback.

The Transhumanist 00:39, 19 May 2009 (UTC)
 * This could be fun. I would be interested in putting together the Japan candidate. -- T orsodo g Talk 21:36, 19 May 2009 (UTC)
 * It partially exists already: Outline of Japan. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 22:04, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Japanese edition of Guiness world records 2006
I've posted this on the WT:ANIME page, but I figure I might get a better chance at finding someone here. I am looking to see if anyone has the issue to look and verify if School Rumble's episode 26 subtitle is the longest subtitle in Japan. If anyone has that issue (the episode was released in 2005), please verify if its true or not. じん ない  18:32, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Photo req: Former hq of ANA and JAS
All Nippon Airways and Japan Air System used to have headquarters at Haneda Airport in Ota, Tokyo: Would anyone like to photograph the buildings? (Assuming they are still there) WhisperToMe (talk) 05:34, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
 * JAS: JAS M1 Bldg. 5-1 Haneda kuko 3-chome, Ota-ku, Tokyo 144-0041 Japan
 * ANA: 3-5-10, Haneda Airport, Ota-ku, Tokyo 144-0041, Japan
 * EDIT: Does anyone know if the building in this photograph is the former ANA headquarters? WhisperToMe (talk) 05:43, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

GA Sweeps invitation
This message is being sent to WikiProjects with GAs under their scope. Since August 2007, WikiProject Good Articles has been participating in GA sweeps. The process helps to ensure that articles that have passed a nomination before that date meet the GA criteria. After nearly two years, the running total has just passed the 50% mark. In order to expediate the reviewing, several changes have been made to the process. A new worklist has been created, detailing which articles are left to review. Instead of reviewing by topic, editors can consider picking and choosing whichever articles they are interested in.

We are always looking for new members to assist with reviewing the remaining articles, and since this project has GAs under its scope, it would be beneficial if any of its members could review a few articles (perhaps your project's articles). Your project's members are likely to be more knowledgeable about your topic GAs then an outside reviewer. As a result, reviewing your project's articles would improve the quality of the review in ensuring that the article meets your project's concerns on sourcing, content, and guidelines. However, members can also review any other article in the worklist to ensure it meets the GA criteria.

If any members are interested, please visit the GA sweeps page for further details and instructions in initiating a review. If you'd like to join the process, please add your name to the running total page. In addition, for every member that reviews 100 articles from the worklist or has a significant impact on the process, s/he will get an award when they reach that threshold. With ~1,300 articles left to review, we would appreciate any editors that could contribute in helping to uphold the quality of GAs. If you have any questions about the process, reviewing, or need help with a particular article, please contact me or OhanaUnited and we'll be happy to help. --Happy editing! Nehrams2020 (talk • contrib) 06:15, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Template: Prefecture
Hello! I have edited some Templates about the prefectures, including Mie, Hiroshima, Hyogo, and Kyoto, which list municipalities. I would like to make similar changes to Kanagawa and the rest. Someone did so already to Chiba and Saitama. The Kyoto template is here.

I suggest the following changes:
 * move the shadow picture to the top (20x20px)
 * resize the flag (60px)
 * list all the towns and villages by district
 * take two designated cities (Yokohama and Kawasaki) out of the list of cities
 * indicate that Yokohama is the capital
 * list all the wards of the designated cities, with or without "-ku"
 * change the background color

I feel that the template should include the wards of Yokohama and Kawasaki, which are required in our addressing system. It would look more like the Japanese version: ja:Template:神奈川県の自治体 It's titled 神奈川県の自治体"等" or Municipalities, etc. Legally, the wards are not municipalities but part of the city government.

What should the top line be like? I've got this question from Fg2.
 * 1) Municipalities of Kanagawa Prefecture (same style as Kyoto)
 * 2) Municipalities and Wards of Kanagawa Prefecture (This may be confusing)
 * 3) Kanagawa Prefecture (prefecture name only)

Thoughts? Shinkansen Fan (talk) 14:27, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Templates to modify
Hi. Before I go ahead with a certain change, I want to have people's opinion about it. I would like to save an exact copy of the Template:Infobox_Buddhist_temple under the name Template:Infobox_Japanese_Buddhist_temple or something like that, and use it instead of the more general one. That way we could modify it, for example appending to it useful links like Glossary of Japanese Buddhism, Shichidō garan, Main Hall (Japanese Buddhism) and so on that do not concern other varieties of Buddhist temple, but that can be useful in understanding what a temple in Japan is. These are articles I wrote, and I plan more like them (that's why I thought this up), but I do think it would be worth doing.

Another template that could and should be modified (but I wouldn't know how to do this) is Template:Shinto. It isn't much used, but I would like to revamp it and use it more often. Before that can be done however a problem must be solved. Take a look at the article Ōnusa. With a photo (absolutely necessary) and the infobox the layout looks funny. Would anyone know how to modify the template to allow inclusion of an optional photo, thus solving the layout problem? This involves modifying another template, which is transcluded. Thanks in advance. urashimataro (talk) 06:19, 21 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Why don't you add a switch to template:infobox buddhist temple, say "|japanese=yes" that will append your links to the bottom? 76.66.196.85 (talk) 07:56, 22 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Take a look at the various templates with images... you could just do it with an


 * If an image exist and it is formatted like any other image, then it will display, if not, nothing will display. 76.66.196.85 (talk) 07:56, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

I know just enough about templates to understand your first idea, and it sounds great, what I need. Alas, I have no idea of how to implement it. Can you (or anyone) help?

Thanks for the second proposal. I may be able to handle myself. BTW, where can I get help from a Wikipedia programmer, in case out anonymous but savvy user is not available?urashimataro (talk) 08:39, 22 May 2009 (UTC) urashimataro (talk) 08:39, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

IJN 1st Fleet
We seem to be missing an article on IJN 1st Fleet, but a bunch of articles link to it. 76.66.196.85 (talk) 07:58, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

Template User Japan notice
Hi all — I've done some work on User Japan notice (see variants on the right). I hope this does not mess up user pages where the template is currently being transcluded. I think it would be better if this template would link to WikiProject Japan, instead of to the Japan-related topics notice board, which is currently inactive, while discussions are going on on the talk page here. I'm not familiar with the history of the noticeboard, so I think it's best if someone who knows about this takes a look at the template. Cs32en 22:11, 22 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree that it would be more effective and useful to have it point here instead. I think the noticeboard no longer really serves a purpose other than to publish notifications of new articles. All discussion which was there has been been moved here and on WT:MOS-JA. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 04:31, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Categories for National Treasures of Japan
As far as I understand, articles about National Treasures of Japan should be placed in Category:National Treasures of Japan. However most National Treasures are likely never going to get their own article as they are part of a compound (e.g. kondō, hondō, etc of temples). It seems that in these cases the compound has been placed in the "National Treasures of Japan" category which is technically incorrect as only some of its part are National Treasures. In fact most of the articles in Category:National Treasures of Japan are not about a National Treasure themselves. Another problem are mobile National Treasures (statues, paintings, etc) which are located in temples, shrines, museums and so on. As far as I know, there is no way to achieve the following with categories To fix the flawed "National Treasures of Japan" Category I can see the following options: What do you think is the best way to deal with this? Or should it be left as it is? bamse (talk) 07:51, 25 May 2009 (UTC)
 * 1) specify in a wikipedia article about a temple or other compound that some of its structures are National Treasures
 * 2) specify in a wikipedia article about a museum or archive or other building that it houses mobile National Treasures (paintings, statues,...)
 * 1) Introduce new categories "Museum housing National Treasures of Japan", "Temple with structures that are National Treasures of Japan" or something similar (too ugly?)
 * 2) Just place everything (temples, museums,...) in the existing "National Treasures of Japan" category.
 * 3) Introduce new categories "National Treasures of Japan (temples)", "National Treasures of Japan (paintings)",... (like on the Japanese wikipedia). Put wiki-articles about temples in "Category:National Treasures of Japan (temples)" or "Category:National Treasures of Japan (paintings)" if the temple has a structure which is a National Treasure or if it houses a NT painting.
 * I think adding all those different categories would be unnecessarily complicating things. I'd favor leaving things the way they are and making sure the intro to each article clearly indicates what part of the complex is considered a national treasure. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:19, 25 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Alright. How about the mobile stuff (paintings, etc) located in temples and museums? Should the respective museum/temple article be placed in this category as well? bamse (talk) 00:51, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
 * If it's an object which is constantly being moved around, I think we should create an article about the object itself so we don't have to deal with that issue. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 02:47, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree, but was wondering if for instance Tokyo National Museum should be put into Category:National Treasures of Japan. (based on objects that are not constantly moved around) bamse (talk) 05:46, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, but make sure something is in the lead explaining that the museum itself is not the national treasure, but items A, B. and C are. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 06:26, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Ghost Stories of Wanderer at Honjo
The article Ghost Stories of Wanderer at Honjo gives the Japanese title as 怪談本所七不思議 Kaidan Honjo nanfushigi. IMDB has the same "nanfushigi." I believe it's a simple spelling error, but I can't read the posters to confirm it. Can anyone verify that? For comparison, see ja:本所七不思議. Fg2 (talk) 11:23, 25 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Yes, my spelling error is (always) very probable. Should it be "nanafushigi"? --Snek01 (talk) 12:19, 25 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Yes, it should be. Oda Mari (talk) 12:56, 25 May 2009 (UTC)


 * OK, corrected. Thanks. --Snek01 (talk) 14:36, 25 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks. Since the misspelling was at IMDB I wanted clarification before changing it; it wasn't an internal Wikipedia matter. Thought it might have been some intentional mispronunciation. Fg2 (talk) 22:56, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Romanization of vowels / Need your opinion
It would be grateful if you'd post your comment/opinion at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (Japan-related articles). Thank you. Oda Mari (talk) 01:57, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
 * The issue seems to be whether the romanization if based on (a) spelling (b) pronunciation (c) semantic entities (d) any combination of these or (e) something completely different. See also Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Japan. I'm not familiar enough with this to provide more advice in addition to the discussion there. Cs32en  04:44, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Second Sino-Japanese War
There seems to be an edit war brewing here, can you guys take a look? Chris (クリス • フィッチュ) (talk) 18:33, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Translation
How do I translate 上二之間, 下二之間, 上一之間? It must be terms from traditional Japanese architecture. Does 二之間 mean that the wall/fusuma is divided in two parts (one above the other)? I'd need it for this list. From what I understand, the expressions I am looking for specify the location of wall/fusuma-paintings at Jukō-in (Daitoku-ji). bamse (talk) 04:53, 28 May 2009 (UTC)


 * 上 and 下 represent the grade of the room. Maybe upper and lower room? A Japanese room could be easily divide into two or three by closing fusuma. The 一 and 二 show its numbers. So the 二之間 means the secondary/second room. Oda Mari (talk) 06:29, 28 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I see, thanks a lot. In the same context, what would 室中 be then? bamse (talk) 06:44, 28 May 2009 (UTC)


 * It's a room, where you put a master/teacher's statue/s, in a hōjō house of a Zen temple. Oda Mari (talk) 08:23, 28 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Interesting. I think I'll just write that the paintings are in the hōjō, not to complicate things. bamse (talk) 08:32, 28 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Correction. It's better to describe as "a ritual/ceremony room". Oda Mari (talk) 08:41, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

GA Reassessment of Curse of the Colonel
I have done a GA Reassessment of Curse of the Colonel as part of the GA Sweeps project. I have found the article to no longer meet the GA Criteria and as such I have put it on hold for one week pending work. I am notifying all interested projects of this and the eventuality that if the article is not improved it may lose its GA status. Here is my GA Reassessment, feel free to contact me on my talk page should you have questions. H1nkles (talk) 19:07, 28 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I've reworked it a bit. Anyone else want to do anything to it? ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:43, 28 May 2009 (UTC)
 * If I have time, I would love to try to rework this. I'll do what I can. -- T orsodo g Talk 21:19, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Kofun period
Kofun period needs serious help. I tried to read it but learned very little from the apparent wasted effort. It is almost entirely about nationalist bickering between Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. In addition, many of the resources are primary accounts from 1300 year old nationalist records. For such an important period, it really needs to be refocused and rewritten from a modern academic, historical perspective. (The article history is a mess, as well.) 124.214.131.55 (talk) 15:26, 30 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree. Since it's about the period, I think nationalistic crap should generally be kept out of it. Anyone know of good sources for the period? 3-4 would be good. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 18:50, 30 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I've done some minor cleanup of one section (the one about Kofun tombs). The others which need to be weeded of nationalistic garbage are near the end of the article. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:44, 30 May 2009 (UTC)