Wikipedia:WikiProject Japan/Mythology task force

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The Mythology taskforce of WikiProject Japan aims primarily to expand, improve and standardize all Japanese mythology and Japanese folklore articles on Wikipedia. Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Japan-related articles) is used for style purposes. Closely related is the Shinto taskforce, which covers Shinto-specific topics.

Departments

• Wikipedia:WikiProject Japanese mythology/Assessment - our assessment unit.

Open tasks

• Add all articles within the scope of this project to the Wikipedia:WikiProject Japanese mythology/Articles page.
• Check for recent changes in these articles for improvements, other changes, and vandalism.

Recognized content

Featured articles

• Kitsune

Good articles

• Botan Doro
• Inari (mythology)
• Tengu
• Yotsuya Kaidan

Did you know (DYK)s

• Akabeko - 22 January 2007
• The Dream of Akinosuke - 17 March 2006
• Okiagari-koboshi - 25 January 2007

Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team release version selections

• Botan Doro
• Gautama Buddha
• Yotsuya Kaidan

News and announcements

• Just a heads up: I'm going to be bold and start merging all the creatures Toriyama Sekien seems to have made up into their respective tomes. Kotengu 小天狗 00:10, 22 April 2007 (UTC)
• Not sure if anyone is still interested in this group, but I have been updating the sections of Japanese ghosts recently. Working on yurei now, and created Goryō. MightyAtom 14:17, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
• Recommended the merger of okiku and Bancho Sarayashiki as they both cover the same information. MightyAtom 13:29, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
• Started up a recommendation to merge Tamamo no Mae and Hoji (Japanese mythology), as they are the same item. There are some other issues, all of which are brought up at the talk page.--み使い Mitsukai 18:24, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
• Merged Emma-o into Yama. Wasn't much to merge except for the fact that some anime character or another has a move named after the god. :) — BrianSmithson 15:10, 15 March 2006 (UTC)
• Added kana readings for most of Brian's great karuta images [1]. The pre-simplification hiragana ("yi," "ye," etc.) still need to be done. MikeDockery 08:09, 15 March 2006 (UTC)
• Identified Image:Obake Karuta 2-04.jpg as a Tanuki. The hiragana character is "ta". MikeDockery 02:03, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

  Identified 1-02 and 1-08 as well, see talk page. Shimeru 06:24, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

• Just wote Obake karuta. Now I wonder if it should be merged with karuta, though. See Talk:Karuta to discuss. I also uploaded a bunch of obake karuta images to Commons (see the category). The creatures and hiragana in these need to be identified in their description pages. And they make great illustrations for articles! — BrianSmithson 20:53, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
• Ushi-Oni stubbed. MikeDockery 10:10, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
• I posted a question regarding the naming convention of kami with long names. I'd like to standardize it or set up something like a manual of style. Please join the discussion and go to Talk page. --Shinkansen Fan (talk) 17:22, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

Templates

Large Vertical Navbox: the large vertical navbox template is {{Jmyth infobox}}.

Smaller Vertical Navbox: the smaller vertical navbox template is {{Jmyth navbox tall}}.

Horizontal Navbox: the horizontal "footer" navigation template is {{Jmyth navbox long}}.

Userbox: userbox can be found at {{User Jmyth}}.

Project tagging

Use {{WikiProject Japan}} to mark Japanese mythology articles talk pages by copying the following: {{WikiProject Japan|myth=yes}}

Structure

For articles on legendary figures, follow Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography. Make sure to specify:

• Name in Kanji and literal transliteration if different from the usual English name.
• Year of birth (and death if applicable)
• Impact/influence (if any)

Use the form of the name in English that is that is the most common usage (e.g. Abe no Seimei, not Seimei Abe. See also Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Japan-related articles)#Person names and Japanese name#Japanese names in English.

Images

In addition to writing great articles about Japanese mythology, our goal is also to illustrate these articles. Fortunately, Japan has a long artistic tradition that stretches back hundreds of years. This means that much Japanese art is in the public domain. Moreover, Japan's mythology is an integral part of its culture, which means that Wikipedia editors who live in or take a trip to Japan have myriad opportunities to photograph shrines, statues, masks, and other mythology-related items.

If you have an image you would like to contribute, please upload it to Wikimedia Commons. That way, users of Wikipedia's sister projects can also have access to the image. Don't forget to choose an image license (generally {{GFDL}} if you took the photo yourself or {{PD-art}} if its a public-domain artwork).

Finally, don't forget to categorize your images. Most Japanese mythology-related images should go in Category:Japanese folklore or Category:Japanese mythology at Commons or in one of their subcategories.

Categorization

Articles related to this project fall under one of two general categories: Category:Japanese folklore or Category:Japanese mythology.

• Use Category:Japanese folklore for specific folk tales, fairy tales, folk heros, and the like. If enough articles of these types are written, we can subcategorize accordingly. Examples: Momotarō, Yotsuya Kaidan.
• Use Category:Japanese mythology and its subcategories for specific deities and legendary creatures. Examples: Amaterasu, tengu.
• Subcategories should be used where appropriate. For example, samebito is part of Category:Japanese legendary creatures, which is itself part of Category:Japanese mythology. Per Wikipedia:Categorization, articles should only belong to the narrowest applicable category, so it is redundant to place samebito in Category:Japanese mythology as well.
• Note that articles on Shinto kami should be placed in Category:Shinto kami. Many of these will also belong to either of Category:Japanese gods or Category:Japanese goddesses, which are on a separate branch of the categorization tree.

Reference List

The following references could be useful for expanding and improving Japanese Mythology articles:

Web Sites

• "A-to-Z Photo Dictionary of Japanese Buddhist & Shinto Deities". Retrieved July 5, 2006.
• "The Obakemono Project". Retrieved February 27, 2006.
• "Japanese Mythology - The gods of Japan". Retrieved February 27, 2006.
• "Encyclopedia of Shinto". Retrieved March 4, 2006.
• "the Mukashibanashi Library". Retrieved October 5, 2006.

Online Text Sources

If you can, please reference print sources before you reference websites. Some print sources can be found online in the following places:

• "Google Books". Retrieved December 16, 2006. - Google Books has been adding numerous old texts to their full view section, many of which contain information relevant to this project.
• "Sacred Texts:Shinto and Japanese Religions". Retrieved December 16, 2006. - English translations of the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki (Nihongi) and various other texts.
• "Manybooks.net: Myth". Retrieved December 16, 2006.
• "Facsimile Books from the University of Georgia Libraries". Retrieved December 16, 2006. - Primarily for "The Dragon in China and Japan" by M.W. de Visser, but a few other books here may be of interest.
• "JSTOR". Retrieved December 16, 2006. - If you attend a participating college or are near the library of one, you can access this excellent resource for old papers.

The entire runs of these academic journals are available for free on Nanzan University's website:

• "Asian Folkore Studies: back issues". Retrieved February 1, 2007.
• "Japanese Journal of Religious Studies: back issues". Retrieved February 1, 2007.

Books

• Ashkenazi, Michael (2003). Handbook of Japanese Mythology. ABC-Clio, Inc. ISBN 1-57607-467-6. Offers excellent brief overviews with information gathered from various sources.
• Hearn, Lafcadio (1971). In Ghostly Japan. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 0-8048-3361-2. Available online.
• Hearn, Lafcadio (1971). Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 4-8053-0750-1. Available online.
• Ono, Sokyo; Woodard, William P. (1962). Shinto: The Kami Way. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 0-8048-3557-8.
• Smith, Richard Gordon (1918). Ancient Tales and Folklore of Japan. A. C. Black. Available online.
• Suzuki, Setsuko, ed. (1996). 英語で話す「日本の心」Keys to the Japanese Heart and Soul. Kodansha International. ISBN 4-7700-2082-1.
• Tyler, Royall (1987). Japanese Tales. Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-394-75656-8.
• Williston, Teresa (1911). Japanese Fairy Tales: Second Series. Rand McNally & Co. Available online.

Secondary Sources

Although they may be helpful in creating articles, information found in the following sources may be inaccurate. Please verify any information found in these sources before using it in your articles.

• "Youkaimura - The Youkai Village". Retrieved February 27, 2006.
• "Yokai World". Retrieved March 7, 2006.(in Japanese)
• "Encyclopedia Mythica: Japanese Mythology". Retrieved October 5, 2006.

Parent Wikiprojects

WikiProject Japan, WikiProject Mythology and WikiProject Shinto can be considered the parents of this project. WikiProject China covers many topics related to Japanese mythology, and WikiProject Anime and manga covers topics which use many elements of the same.

Participants

In alphabetical order

• 9muses
• Badbilltucker
• Bamse
• Brain
• BrianSmithson
• Bueller_007
• Colincbn
• elvenscout742
• EvilEgg2008 (talk) 19:46, 16 February 2008 (UTC)
• 巌流
• General Eisenhower 17:47, 30 April 2006 (UTC)
• Gryffindor 14:24, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
• Hindukillermix
• Hyakkiyakou
• JanderVK
• John Carter 20:21, 10 July 2007 (UTC) - What means this word, "alphabetical"?
• Kotengu 00:51, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
• l337p4wn - For Abe no Seimei!
• lhall
• Lonchi Awotsuki**(蒼月ろんち)
• MightyAtom
• MikeDockery
• み使い Mitsukai
• 日本穣
• nnh 14:10, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
• Nobunaga24
• Osarusan
• Oxford88
• Rourensu
• s7rugg1e - Tanomare, Tanomare.
• Satanael 11:43, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
• Shimeru
• Shinkansen Fan --Shinkansen Fan (talk) 13:59, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
• Tadakuni
• Takedashingen620
• TomorrowTime
• Torsodog
• Vanillax - Let's get this organized.
• Worldish2024