…As in the name of the Japanese Ship, which was named after one Mt. Katsuragi?
I haven’t been having much luck at translating it, myself. It’s spelled with kanji (which I can’t paste into my browser—sorry) that transliterate as “kuzo” and “shiro,” which might literally read as “kudzu castle.” I think. Maybe. According to one site. Assuming I did it right. Which isn’t certain. And I’m still guessing that isn’t what the spoken name would translate as, anyway.
Can anyone help?
It doesn’t seem implausible to me that it means exactly what you’ve discovered–Kudzu Castle, or Fort Kudzu. Maybe they built one on that mountain.
However, you’re right that it could be that they used the kanji for their sound rather than for any meaning associated with them. In my (limited) experience, this is not usual for place names and surnames in Japanese, but it could be.
I notice that “ragi” is not actually listed as a reading of the second kanji. (I also notice that you got the links backward–“Kudzu” links to the “ragi” kanji and vice versa.) But it’s probably an archaic reading or something.
-FrL-
According to the Japanese Wikipedia, it is definitely named after Mt. Katsuragi. It doesn’t say how the mountain came to be named that, however.
About Katsuragi as a name in general it says:
葛城（かつらぎ）は、奈良盆地の南西部を指す地域の名称。古くからある名称で、明確な範囲・境界線を示すことは困難である。「葛木」という漢字をあてられる例もある。また、古くは「かづらき」であったという説もある。古墳時代でも有数の豪族であった葛城氏の勢力圏であったと考えられている。飛鳥時代の前半あたりには葛城県が、その後は葛城国が置かれたようである。令制国として大和国が置かれた際の葛上郡、葛下郡、忍海郡あたりが元の葛城国（葛城県）の範囲ではないかと考えられる。現在の行政区分に照らし合わせると御所市、大和高田市、香芝市、葛城市、北葛城郡の一部もしくは全域が想定される。
This is a little more complex than I can read without a kanji dictionary at hand, but perhaps someone else can translate it.
OK. That was a tough one to track down. Katsuragi means “arrowroot castle.”
The ship name apparently derives from the mountain/range/region, but a “katsuragi” was an actual type of primitive Japanese fortification:
http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/k/katsuragi.htm
How, precisely, the fortification name was attached to the mountain is still unclear. (Were there many such fortifications here? Is the mountain so choked with arrowroot vines that it is, itself, an impenetrable “arrowroot fortress”? Is the mountain just big and castlelike?)
And, duh, arrowroot = kudzu. I should have thought about that for two seconds.
And putting two more seconds of thought into it … literally “kudzu belt” (katsura gi). A belt of kudzu vines placed around your camp/fort in order to trip up invaders (like barbed wire, only not poky).
Heh. If nothing else—and it certainly isn’t nothing, thanks everyone for the enlightening information!—I think learning this made posting the thread worth it. 
Here is my amateur translation, with the help of rikai-chan and wwwjdic (internet kanji translators).
Katsuragi is the name of the southwest part of the Nara basin. As it is an ancient territorial title, it is difficult to accurately pinpoint the true location of this border line. There are instances of this set of characters being used before. Some hold the theory that ‘katsuragi’ is a very ancient word. It is important to consider that in the Tumulous period of Japanese history, there was a powerful and influential clan named Katsuragi.
After approximately the first half of the Asuka period of Japanese history, it seems that the land of the Katsuragi was taken. In this period of Yamato history, it is thought that the provinces of Kuzugami, Katsushiro, and Shiomi were formed from the Katsuragi domain.
As for modern day Japan, it is believed that the region of Katsuragi is comprised of the cities of Gose, Yamatotakada, Kashiba, Katsuragi, and either part or whole of Kitakatsuragigun.
Man… that was hard work ^-^
A few corrections…
That’s not what: 「葛木」という漢字をあてられる例もある says. Rather: “There are examples of the word being written: arrowroot-tree (instead of arrowroot-castle).”
You got the second sentence wrong also: “There is a hypothesis that in ancient times it was written katsuraki (in hiragana).”
Followed by: “It is thought to correspond with the realm of the Katsuragi clan, one of the more powerful of the Kofun period.”
And then:
“In the first half of the Asuka period, it is the place of Katsuragi-ken (prefecture) and later Katsuragi Province. It is thought to correspond possibly to the districts of Kuzugami, Katsushiro, and Shiomi, formed with the creation of Yamato Province. When compared to contemporary political divisions, it is thought to cover the area of Gose City, Yamato-Takada City, Kashiba City, Katsuragi City and part of Kita-Katsuragi-gun.”
About this: JAANUS / katsuragi 葛城
What this brief text appears to be referring to is an anecdote from chapter 3 of the Nihon Shoki. It is related that Emperor Jimmu sent troups to fight a group of people of short stature and long arms, known as the tsuchigumo. The emperor’s army used nets made of vine (katsura) to capture and kill them. One hypothesis is that this is where Katsuragi comes from. (The tsuchigumo are mentioned several other times elsewhere in the Nihon Shoki. The word also refers to a kind of spider-like monster, but it was common for enemies to be referred to in such terms.)
Thanks for the corrections ^^; My main difficulty was trying to figure out which meaning of ‘oku’ the passage was using.
I missed these, as I copy and pasted Autolycus’ text, but the correct readings of 葛上郡, 葛下郡 and 忍海郡 are:
Katsuragi-no-kami or Katsujou, Katsuragi-no-shimo or Katsuge and Oshimi.