"Sanpei" Shirato or "Sampei" Shirato?

Jet_Jaguar · Post by **Jet_Jaguar** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 12:41 -0700

Is the name of the creator of Ninja Bugeicho and The Legend of Kamui more properly transliterated as "Sanpei" Shirato or "Sampei" Shirato? "Sanpei" seems to be the more common spelling, and it's the one that Viz used for their English edition of Kamui (which Stan lettered), but Fred Schodt used the "Sampei" spelling in the book Dreamland Japan, and I've also seen it a few other places. Is one spelling more "correct" than the other, or are they pretty interchangeable?

Post by **Steve Hubbell** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 12:51 -0700

I don't know the answer to this, but the n or m variation seems to occur in the word chanbara / chambara as well. Also, the title of the Lone Wolf and Cub books and movies have been translated as Kozure Okami and Kozure Ookami. I have also seen Goseki Kojima's name spelt differantly.

Stan Sakai · Post by **Stan Sakai** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 13:08 -0700

The pronunciation of the character that is used sounds like a short nasal grunt, somewhere between an "n" and "m". That is why even "Yoimbo" is sometimes spelled "Yojinbo".

In the case of "Okami", you pronounce the "o" slightly longer than the other syllables. That is why the double "o". When written in hiragana or katakana, there might be a line after the "o" or a "u" after the "o" indicating that sound must be held for an extra beat.