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I was watching an anime called Ganbare Goemon and there was this sign that I
found a bit strange:

![南北銀行](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ar6AO.png)

How exactly are you supposed to understand it? I mean, north and south are in
opposite directions so isn't it contradictory? Or does it mean that it covers
all areas from north to south? Or is it perhaps just a name that doesn't
really have any special meaning?

Oh, and I want to mention that English is my second language (I'm from Russia)
so maybe there is some sort of language barrier that makes it sound weird for
me.
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2016-01-23T14:46:19.230
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2019-01-01T11:14:26.480
2016-01-23T17:37:27.883
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words anime
南北銀行 (North-South Bank) meaning
The fancy name for this kind of word is Dvandva (from Sanskrit): there is a
Wikipedia article on this, but I do not think it is very good. Basically this
is a compound made (in Chinese or Japanese, where there is no grammatical case
or anything like that) by putting together two opposing or contrasting words,
neither or them being the head of the construction. So it is not that the
first qualifies the second or vice versa -- the meaning is the contrast
between the two. Very often, in English there is a completely different term
for this.

A couple of examples:

  * [上下]{じょうげ} lit. "up-down", means "vertical"
  * [左右]{さゆう}[対称]{たいしょう} lit. "left-right symmetry" means "lateral symmetry"

Now [東西]{とうざい} ("east-west") is commonly used to refer to "East and West", and
the associated culture contrast; [南北]{なんぼく} can similarly refer to North and
South hemispheres, though the commonest reference I think is
[南北]{なんぼく}[戦争]{せんそう}, the American Civil War between the "North" and the
"South".

So there is nothing mysterious about the name, and it does not sound the
tiniest bit unnatural (disclaimer: I am not a native speaker). You will meet
thousands more words and names like this...

If you go to Japanese wikipedia -- here's the article on the American Civil
War <https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8D%97%E5%8C%97%E6%88%A6%E4%BA%89> --
then copy just the first two characters 南北 into the "Search" box, you can see
all the suggested entries beginning with 南北.
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2016-01-23T19:27:56.940
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answer
**_It means nothing, trust me._**

In manga/anime, authors customarily create weird, non-sense or parodic proper
nouns for companies, schools, newspapers, etc. They do so because they are
legally not allowed to use real existing proper nouns.

There often are, however, "funny" similarities between some of those fictional
proper nouns and the real proper nouns that they are named after.

**_Among the most famous and often used are:_**

> 「 **毎朝** 新聞」← The most famous Japanese newspaper that does **_not_** exist!

I have been seeing this imaginary newspaper name in manga, dramas, etc. all of
my life. It is so obviously taken from both 「 **毎日** 新聞」 and 「 **朝日** 新聞」,
both of which are existing major newspapers.

> 「[帝都大学]{ていとだいがく}」、「帝都[銀行]{ぎんこう}」, etc.

You will see those often as well. Upon seeing/hearing the 「[帝都]{ていと}」 part,
most Japanese-speakers will think of 「[東京]{とうきょう}」.

> 「 **ワ** クドナルド」 with 「ワ」instead of 「マ」.

The imaginary hamburger chain.

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/5aazg.jpg)

Likewise, 「[南北銀行]{なんぼくぎんこう}」 is just an imaginary bank. It would be pretty
useless analyzing the 「南北」 part. It just means "south and north" and , even
though this bank does not exist, it looks "normal" for a business name and
that is all that matters. Looking "kind of normal" is the key here. Unless it
is important to the story, you do not spend much time thinking of a unique and
great-sounding proper name. It simply will not serve its purpose.
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2016-01-24T07:24:16.003
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2019-01-01T11:14:26.480
2019-01-01T11:14:26.480
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