# The word Maru in Japanese ship names **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 21, 2006, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-maru-in-japanese-ship-names/357614 "2006-05-21T06:04:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ntcrawler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/34f0e0/32.png) [@ntcrawler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ntcrawler)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2006, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-maru-in-japanese-ship-names/357614/1 "2006-05-21T06:04:15Z")
What’s the significance of the suffix word “maru” in Japanese ship names? Ksbyashi Maru, Nissei Maru, etc? ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2006, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-maru-in-japanese-ship-names/357614/2 "2006-05-21T06:09:40Z")
I’m fairly sure “maru” just means “boat” or “ship.” Can someone confirm? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2006, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-maru-in-japanese-ship-names/357614/3 "2006-05-21T06:11:25Z")
Actually, it means “circle.” I was just reading up about this on [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_ship_naming_conventions), which says: > [@](#): > > There are several theories associated with this practice. > > \*(The commonest): That ships were thought of as floating castles, and the word referred to the defensive “circles” or maru that protected the castle. > > \*That the suffix -maru is often applied to words representing something that is beloved, and sailors applied this suffix to their ships. > > \*That the term maru is used in divination and represents perfection or completeness, or the ship as a small world of its own. > > \*A legend of Hakudo Maru, a celestial being that came to earth and taught humans how to build ships. It is said that the name maru is attached to a ship to secure celestial protection for it as it travels. > > Today commercial and private ships are still named with this convention. > > The first ship known to follow this convention was the Nippon Maru, flagship of daimyo Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s 16th century fleet. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2006, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-maru-in-japanese-ship-names/357614/4 "2006-05-21T06:12:18Z")
Ah. My mistake, then. ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2006, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-maru-in-japanese-ship-names/357614/5 "2006-05-21T07:58:29Z")
Nothing much to add here, other than the use of ‘maru’ for ships can actually be dated back to 1187, well before Toyotomi Hideyoshi. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-maru-in-japanese-ship-names/357614/6 "2006-05-22T00:13:37Z")
Celestial protection, eh? Small wonder that a young James T. Kirk had to cheat in order to beat it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-maru-in-japanese-ship-names/357614/7 "2006-05-22T00:16:11Z")
:smack: I meant to clarify that the “it” was the \*Kobayashi Maru \* officer training test, that is. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-maru-in-japanese-ship-names/357614/8 "2006-05-22T00:29:06Z")
You didn’t need to. We all got it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-maru-in-japanese-ship-names/357614/9 "2006-05-22T01:48:32Z")
Back when I was sinking Japanese ships (in the classic computer game _Gato_), I always wondered why every ship was Maru this and Maru that. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-maru-in-japanese-ship-names/357614/10 "2006-05-22T02:29:27Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > Back when I was sinking Japanese ships (in the classic computer game _Gato_), I always wondered why every ship was Maru this and Maru that. “Gato” rocked, dude. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-maru-in-japanese-ship-names/357614/11 "2006-05-22T02:41:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*(The commonest): That ships were thought of as floating castles, and the word referred to the defensive “circles” or maru that protected the castle. > > \*That the suffix -maru is often applied to words representing something that is beloved, and sailors applied this suffix to their ships. I have to disagree with this; I just looked at a couple of Japanese dictionaries and several web sites, and only that second meaning is mentioned. The word comes from _maro_ (麻呂), which was originally a first-person pronoun but later became a suffix used on people’s names, especially beloved children, and later used on precious posessions (swords, musical instruments, pets). It seems very natural that ships got the same suffix. > [@cckerberos](#): > > Nothing much to add here, other than the use of ‘maru’ for ships can actually be dated back to 1187, well before Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Could you elaborate? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-maru-in-japanese-ship-names/357614/12 "2006-05-22T04:14:22Z")
[Google™ cache of Lloyd’s Register page discussing meaning of “maru”](http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:HE9eoGcQT0IJ:www.lr.org/services_overview/shipping_information/is041maru.htm+definition:+maru&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1) (The original seems to be gone. Scroll down to get to the text.) ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-maru-in-japanese-ship-names/357614/13 "2006-05-22T04:28:05Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Could you elaborate? Sure. According to the [Museum of Maritime Science](http://www.funenokagakukan.or.jp/moms/qa/#qa09) in Tokyo, there are references in documents dating from 1187 found at the Ninna-ji in Kyoto of a ship named the Bando-maru ( 坂東丸 ), and that is said to have been the first use of maru in a ship’s name. BTW, the site makes brief mention of the castle theory, but spends most of its time describing the maro theory.