Talk:Japanese castle

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[edit] Move?

Should Japanese Castle be moved to Japanese Castles? A Max J 12:19, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

No, because Wikipedia standard is the singular in article names. Confer Wikipedia:Naming conventions. -- Mkill 15:07, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Should it be moved to Castles of Japan? Fg2 22:16, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

No, because Japanese castle is what is more likely to be used as an inline link, as in "Azuchi Castle was the first Japanese castle to with a central keep that was ...". Still, it's a good idea to have redirects from Castles in Japan and Castles of Japan to avoid accidental article doublettes. -- Mkill 22:59, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Also because the article covers the Japanese style of castles, as opposed to castles geographically located in Japan. If there were to be Japanese style castles outside of Japan, they'd be included under this article's descriptions of the architecture, etc. Meanwhile, any Western-style castles built in Japan are not covered. LordAmeth 11:56, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Assessment

This article needs footnotes. ;-) Kirill Lokshin 01:45, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Ah, blargh. I hate footnotes. ... I'll see what I can do. Thanks for the assessment, my friend. LordAmeth 03:03, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Looking better? I'm glad to cite things, now that I realize how easy it is to do footnotes here in Wiki. I'm really frustrated, though, at not being able to find a source to directly and explicitly defend my assertion that Japanese castles grew in power and popularity as a result of the advent of firearms. I find it a wonderfully ironic and interesting counterpoint to the fall of European castles due to the same stimulus, and gives a great image, a great concept to the overall timeline of castle development in Japan. LordAmeth 00:13, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Siege warfare

What about Siege warfare. I'm assuming that they must have used different weapons than the Europeans. I know the Japanese are not Chinese, but being close to China may have led to extensive use of Gunpowder in early rocket and missile projectors?

Ceryainly no Roman Balista or Scorpion was used - was it? If we could build up a section on that, perhaps we could raise the standard of the article. Man of Stubs.

I'm afraid I don't have my sources on me right now (I'm at school in London, and my books on castles & Asian siege warfare are at home in NY), but I remember reading that, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the Japanese really didn't use siege engines, even Chinese-style ones, very much at all. As far as I am aware, gunpowder weapons were not used at all until the introduction of the European arquebus (c. 1550), and what few things they did use - Chinese-style trebuchet, etc. - were used as anti-personnel weapons, and not against fortifications. I have come across a few references to Western-style cannon being used against castles in the late 16th century, but I get the impression once again that this may have been quite limited. The Mōri clan is known for their naval tactics, and their use of cannon (e.g. 1569 siege of Tachibana), but I would not be surprised if they were the only samurai clan to make use of these. LordAmeth 10:14, 4 March 2007 (UTC)