Talk:Japanese ship naming conventions

Spacecraft

I heard that there are different conventions on the namings of spacecraft.

The Japanese chose animals or plants (Is it related to this article?).

The Europeans famous Europeans (Galileo, Giotto).

The Soviets idealistic concepts (Buran, Energiya, Unity, World/Peace).

The Americans went from Classical Greek Mythology (Project Mercury, Project Gemini, Project Apollo) to Historic Scientific Research Vessels (Columbia, Discovery, Challenger, Atlantis, Endeavour).

When the time came to name the ISS, they couldn't agree and the temporary name stood.

Japanese Warship Naming Rule

In 1905, Yamamoto Gonnohyoe devised the Naming Rule and Meiji Emperor enacted it. Person's name were rejected in 1883 by Meiji Emperor, no warship named after person's name since then.

大日本帝国海軍命名規則

艦種		命名基準
戦艦		旧国名
巡洋艦	巡洋戦艦	山の名
	一等巡洋艦
	二等巡洋艦	川の名
練習巡洋艦		神宮の名
航空母艦		空にまつわる動物/瑞祥名
		山の名（1943年より）
水上機母艦		雅語
駆逐艦	一等駆逐艦	天象・気象・海象
		植物の名
	二等駆逐艦	植物の名
敷設艦		雅語
		鳥の名
砲艦		名所旧跡
潜水母艦		海棲生物
潜水艦	一等潜水艦	番号（イ/伊号）
	二等潜水艦	番号（ロ/呂伊号,ハ/波号）
水雷艇		鳥の名
海防艦	甲型	島の名
	丙型・丁型	番号
哨戒艇		番号
掃海艇		番号
駆潜艇		番号
敷設艇		島の名
		鳥の名
運送艦		岬、海峡の名
輸送艦		番号

海上自衛隊艦艇命名規則

護衛艦	DD	天象地象、山岳名、地方名
	DE	河川名
潜水艦	SS	大型は「潮」、水中動物名 小型は「潜水艦何号」（番号）
掃海艦	GP	列島・諸島名
掃海艇	MSC	３字で「島」のつかない島名 4字で「島」のつく島名
掃海母艦	MST	瀬戸名
掃海母艇	MST	水道名
敷設艦	ARC	海峡名
駆潜艇	PC	草木名　鳥名（トン数により2字・3字・4字）
輸送艦	LST	半島または岬名
練習艦	TV	神社名
潜水艦救難艦	ASR	城名
補給艦	AOE	湖名
海洋観測艦	AGS	風光明媚の地名

City of brotherly love?

The statement "For example, Akagi is probably perceived as "red castle" by Japanese about as often as Philadelphia is perceived as the "city of brotherly love" by Americans." lacks context for those not familiar with Philadelphia or how Americans refer to it. Is it often or not often at all? JRR Smith 22:07, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

Carrier Naming Conventions

The assertion that carriers *post 1943* were named after mountains using the example of the Akagi isn't correct. The Akagi was sunk in 1942 during the Battle of Midway. Similarly, the Kaga is named after a province but was also sunk in 1942. Arthur 00:29, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

The Akagi was laid down as an Amagi-class battle cruiser, and is therefore in accord with the naming convention which calls for battle cruisers to be named after mountains even though it was later converted into an aircraft carrier. See [1]

The Kaga was laid down as a Tosa-class battleship, and is therefore in accord with the naming convention which calls for battleships to be named after provinces even though it was later converted into an aircraft carrier. See [2]

Similarly, the Shinano was laid down as a Yamato-class battleship and is therefore in accord with battleship naming conventions, even though it was later converted into an aircraft carrier. See [3]

Suggest the item referring to post-1943 aircraft carriers be deleted.

Astro$01 03:36, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Naming after people

In the introduction, the article currently states, offhandedly:

Japanese warships have never been named after people.

But then in the "Early conventions" section:

During the early years ships were often donated by the Shogunate or Japanese clans and the original clan names were kept.

Indeed, I was led here from the article on the Date-Maru. But surely clan names, at least in some sense, are names of people? I'm not sure how to fix this. Perhaps the introduction should say "Japanese warships have never been named after specific people", which (I presume, not having any particular knowledge of the subject) would be more accurate. Comments? --Iustinus 19:27, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Contradiction with Star Trek-related article

The article on the fictional Star Trek ship Kobayashi Maru gives a different translation for the word Maru than the one given here -- that article claims that maru means "spirit [of]", with Kobayashi Maru thus meaning "spirit of Kobayashi." I suspect that the Japanese ship naming conventions article is correct, but I don't speak Japanese, so I wanted to throw this out there to get an opinion. --Jfruh (talk) 17:12, 29 March 2009 (UTC)