Talk:Shikoku

Meaning of ancient names

"Its ancient names include Iyo-no-futana-shima (伊予之二名島), Iyo-shima (伊予島), and Futana-shima (二名島). "

My limited knowledge of old japanese/classical chinese leads me to believe that the old name for Shikoku 伊予之二名島 means "伊"-"予"-two-name-island. What then does 伊 and 予 stand for? I guess they are ateji, so what are the original meanings of these (I presume) japanese words?

No History ??

As of the current edition of this page, there is no histoy whatsoever about the island (??!) I find that very dissapointing, considering it's Japan fourth largest island, surely there's history to be write down about it?

Like how Chōsokabe Motochika succeeded in conquering/gain supremacy over all of Shikoku by 1584 but submitted it to Toyotomi Hideyoshi when the latter invaded the island the following year. 37.250.49.215 (talk) 21:05, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

See - http://factsanddetails.com/japan/cat25/sub171/item961.html & https://www.art-takamatsu.com/en/travel/sightseeing/entry-42.html . & . https://www.tnm.jp/modules/r_free_page/index.php?id=380&lang=en ... along with scholarly works such as the Cambridge History of Japan 50.111.6.33 (talk) 18:11, 6 December 2018 (UTC)

Number of main islands

This article says that there's 5 main islands of Japan, yet if you click through to them it says there's only 4 (it doesn't count Okinawa). Suggest revising one of the articles for consistency. 82.19.9.135 (talk) 09:43, 24 April 2022 (UTC)

The second sentence is now inconsistent with the first one. The first sentence states there are 4 main islands, not counting Okinawa among the main islands. The second sentence says "Shikoku is the second-smallest main island after Okinawa." implying Okinawa is in fact a main island. 95.102.49.97 (talk) 14:25, 8 June 2022 (UTC)

I agree – this is all quite confusing. In every other context I've come across, Japan has been described as having four main islands, with Shikoku being the smallest, and with Okinawa being an outlying area. The linked source, passed thru Google Translate, discusses the concept of "remote islands", with remote islands being everything except "Honshu, Hokkaido, Shikoku, Kyushu and the main island of Okinawa". I suspect the author of these sentences interpreted this as "[these five islands] are the main islands" (and, in fact, the now-removed reference did have a (translated) quote "main islands: 5 islands, remote islands: 6,847 islands"). On the other hand, I interpret this as there being a set of four main islands, then the island of Okinawa, then everything else is a "remote island". I went ahead and rewrote the first two sentences, excluding a mention of Okinawa, after justifying to myself that this is a more accurate interpretation, based on how the following articles treat the concept of "main islands":

• Our List of islands of Japan: The four main islands of Japan are: Hokkaido; Honshu; Kyushu; Shikoku.
• The Japanese version of "List of Japanese islands" (via Google Translate): Similarly, in Japan, Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and in some cases 4 to 5 islands including the main island of Okinawa are treated as "mainland" and are not generally called "islands". – the four main islands are listed separately, then additionally there are "4 to 5 islands ... including Okinawa" that are separate from other islands, then everything else is a small island.
• Japanese archipelago: The term "mainland Japan" is used to distinguish the large islands of the Japanese archipelago from the remote, smaller islands; it refers to the main islands of Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku.
• Honshu: Honshu (...), is the largest and most populous main island of Japan. – easily avoids the whole issue by being the biggest in any grouping. Similarly, Hokkaido: Hokkaidō (...) is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region.
• Kyushu: Kyushu (...) is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa). – This one does talk about five "main" islands (with the same reference as was here), but then four "largest" islands, grouping them separately.
• But on the other hand, Okinawa Island: Okinawa Island (...) is the largest of the Okinawa Islands (...) It is the smallest and least populated of the five main islands of Japan. I did notice that the reference for "five main islands" is the same as it was here, from the 2007 pages of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. oatco (talk) 02:35, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

Actually, I just noticed the lead of Japan: Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans an archipelago of 6852 islands covering 377,975 square kilometers (145,937 sq mi); the five main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu (the "mainland"), Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. and Geography of Japan: The five main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku and Okinawa. Perhaps I acted too quickly. (The Geography of Japan article also references that MLIT site, and only that, for five main islands (and 6852 total islands). I wonder if there's a different source available for five main islands? One should be wary of citogenesis in English-language sources, however.)

I also looked at a translation of the Japanese article on Japan, to see what it says. Via Bing Translate (easier to read, in this case): Spanning more than 3,500 kilometers, the country consists mainly of Japan archipelagos^{[note 7]} and arc-shaped archipelagos such as the Kuril Islands, Southwest Islands, Izu Islands, and Ogasawara Islands,^[3][4] and is mostly temperate, but there are subarctic and tropical regions in the north and islands.^[5][6]. Note 7 says: The four main islands of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu and their accompanying islands. (Japanese: 北海道・本州・四国・九州の主要四島およびそれに付随する島々。)

There's also the Japanese article on the Japanese archipelago:

The extent of the Japan archipelago is interpreted differently depending on whether it is based on topography or cultural sphere.^{[citation needed]} In general, there are two ways of thinking and viewing, one in a narrow sense and one in a broad sense.

The range of the Japan archipelago in a narrow sense is the four islands of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu and their accompanying islands.

The range of the Japan archipelago in a broad sense is the four islands of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu, as well as their accompanying islands, the Kuril Islands, and the Southwest Islands.

So, on one hand, many of our articles talk about five main islands, and as of now this article is somewhat of an outlier by only mentioning four. On the other hand, the reference for "five main islands" seems to be one Japanese-language website, archived in 2007, accessed in 2019 – of course, there may be others. On the third hand, the Japanese Wikipedia consistently (as far as I've seen) only talks about four main islands. I hope I didn't stir the hornets' nest with this one. oatco (talk) 02:59, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Geofeatures map of Shikoku Japan ja.svg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 14:32, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

History of Shikoku

This does not exist, and this article does not even have a history section. But one exits on ja wiki. And on zh, where this is a starred article. Anyone feels like translating this here? _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 08:17, 27 November 2023 (UTC)

movement section

Seems like a advertisement? What does it even mean? 2601:1C2:500:339B:D40A:2DEC:3A02:5717 (talk) 05:51, 20 December 2023 (UTC)