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Yamato and Musashi

Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 7:58 pm
by George Gerolimatos
Karl,
There was a great samurai and teacher named Miyamoto Musashi (the Japanese had a famous serial of novels in the 20s and 30s devoted to him). His name was after a famous province in Japan. Similarly, the Yamato province contained the original capital of ancient Japan. It has a special meaning for the Japanese people to this day; sometimes they call themselves the "Yamato" people (or race). Thus, in both cases, the ships were named after regions and not people.
George G.

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 12:02 am
by Karl Heidenreich
Thanks George!
About Miyamoto Musashi, as I wrote before, I was aware that he was a great samurai and poet who wrote a book called the "Book of the Five Rings", but I wasn´t aware that his name was after a province.
And Yamato is a more important name than I thought before, it is almost mytical. Both names are very, very cool indeed: perfect names for inmortal ships.
What about the Japanese aircraft carriers: Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, Soryu, Shinano, etc. Provinces and landmarks too?

Japanese warship names

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 1:08 am
by George Gerolimatos
Hi again,
there is a fantastic website out there on the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). You can find it at combinedfleet.com. As to your question, no, Japanese carriers were not normally named after provinces. The only exceptions were those ships originally laid down as battlecruiser, i.e., Akagi (her name means "Red Castle"), Kaga, and Shinano. In other cases, Japanese carriers were named after mythical flying creatures. Soryu means "blue dragon", Hiryu "flying dragon" and so on. Isn't this so much cooler than calling a carrier Wasp or Hornet?! Cruisers were named after mountains, light cruisers for rivers, and destroyers after weather conditions. I'm biased, but the Japanese knew how to infuse war and poetry together!

George G.

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 4:41 pm
by Karl Heidenreich
Well, Hornet, Wasp, Enterprise are cool and agresive names. As I said Ticconderoga, Lexinton, Gettysburg, Nimitz are cool names too. The problem with American ship names are those John Stennis, Leahy, Vinson, etc. that are like those Antonio Bonomi signaled from the Italian ones.
I still think that British and Japanese are the better ones.

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 3:12 pm
by miro777
hey
i am back after a break....
hmm the nicest name for a warship?
i would agree with that the british had real nice names, like repulse, thunderer, etc and that japanese sound cool for a westerner, but in fact those are just ordinary names like Bismarck or Tirptiz.

My favourite is a spanish one and its the name of the biggest ever build wooden battleship, the
Santissima Trinidad

i just think that's an awsome name

i wouldnt totally say that names of people are lame, cuz Bismarck or Hood or Rodney still bring up some power, but i generally agree that German ship names were not the best. Especially the ships in WW1 called Herzorgin, grossfuerst, kaiserin or after states like Bayern, wtc.
thos suck...lol

adios
miro

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 3:41 pm
by Gary
Scharnhorst.

Fantastic name for a warship :clap:

Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 2:44 pm
by RNfanDan
Okay, I'll chip in with a name that rolls off the tongue quite well....

NORMANDIE !


Easy to say in any Western language, and it has a nice syllabic "curve".


While perhaps not as evocative or powerful or threatening as Japanese, German, or British ship names, the original question asked for "beautiful"

Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 10:46 pm
by Karl Heidenreich
George Gerolimatos
Karl,
There was a great samurai and teacher named Miyamoto Musashi (the Japanese had a famous serial of novels in the 20s and 30s devoted to him). His name was after a famous province in Japan. Similarly, the Yamato province contained the original capital of ancient Japan. It has a special meaning for the Japanese people to this day; sometimes they call themselves the "Yamato" people (or race). Thus, in both cases, the ships were named after regions and not people.
George G.
Hi George:

a couple of days ago I saw a documentary at NAT GEO about samurais. Obviously it came to Musashi and the narrator stated that the WWII Battleship was named after the great samurai warrior. In the process they said nothing about the province with the same name. That doesn´t surprise me because documentaries are always a collection of trivia and little or poor investigation (just see Cameron´s Bismarck). Your explanation satisfies me.
Best regards

Names

Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 11:47 pm
by George Gerolimatos
Hi,
Yes, I agree, documentaries can be sadly lacking in correct details. This is particularly offensive because there are great sites like this one and others which could correct all those silly mistakes. TV producers, just do your homework!

I'm not sure if this site has been posted before, but there is a site which can pronounce different languages. So, you can type in the name of your favorite warship and hear it in the original tongue! I tested the English and the German ones; they sound okay. I'm of course unsure if the French, Italian, or Japanese is accurate. Give it a try: enter "Senkan musashi" (Battleship musashi) or "corazzate vittorio veneto" (battleship vitorrio veneto) in their respective languages and enjoy! Are there Italian, Spanish, and Japanese speakers out there? How is the pronunciation? Here's the site: http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/f ... rame1=talk

George G.

Re: The most beautiful name for a warship?

Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:36 pm
by DanFilson
HMS Victory has it for me!

Re: The most beautiful name for a warship?

Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 6:07 pm
by Bgile
Enterprise.

Re: The most beautiful name for a warship?

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 9:07 am
by Glasisch
Hello,

Germany: Derfflinger, FRAUENLOB = Women - praise :D
Great Britain: Warspite, Arc Royal
Russia/Soviet Union: Gangut, Avrora
Italy: Littorio, Zara
France: Dunkerque, Lamotte-Piquet
Spain: España, Méndez Núñez
USA: Wasp, Hornet
Japan: Yamato, Kaga

Regards
Mischa

Re: The most beautiful name for a warship?

Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 12:00 am
by mike kemble
I think to name a ship in an agressive nature eg: invincible; is asking for trouble.

Re: The most beautiful name for a warship?

Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 1:51 am
by Karl Heidenreich
I think to name a ship in an agressive nature eg: invincible; is asking for trouble.
Specially if the bloody ship blows up!

Re: The most beautiful name for a warship?

Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 8:27 am
by mike kemble
Well said Karl, and oh so true.