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Why in this image ノ is written in katakana and not in hiragana? [![enter image
description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/loeP8.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/loeP8.png)
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2017-07-12T07:07:04.307
50317
2017-08-05T06:03:09.067
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question
katakana
Why is this written in katakana instead of hiragana?
の in traditional proper nouns are commonly written in katakana.

  * [壇ノ浦](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dan-no-ura)
  * [三ノ宮駅](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sannomiya_Station_\(JR_West\))
  * [鬼ノ城](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ki_castle)
  * [沖ノ鳥島](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinotorishima)

Practically, this can help people notice that this の is part of the proper
noun and not the ordinary particle.

Historically, hiragana were not much preferred in proper nouns and official
documents anyway. Meiji Constitution published in 1889 looked [like
this](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E5%B8%9D%E5%9B%BD%E6%86%B2%E6%B3%95#/media/File:Meiji_Kenpo02.jpg).
(See: [Orthography at the turn of the previous
century](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/14848/5010)) There were many
[katakana-only person names](http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/09/19/why-old-
japanese-women-have-names-in-katakana/) and place names in the old days. For
the same reason, I would hardly expect hiragana in nameplates of real temples.
Although this 火ノ寺 seems to be the name of a fictional temple, I can say this ノ
adds an old and authentic look to the name.
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2017-07-12T10:19:24.577
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2017-07-12T15:21:17.180
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answer
It is a very difficult question even for Japanese.

I couldn't guess the reasonable reason why it was written as "火ノ寺" specially
instead of the ordinary way as "火の寺", though の and ノ are interchangeable as is
said in Tetsuya Yamamoto's comment for your question.

So at first, I thought that someone wrote it merely a choice to made their
work stand out from other similar works; I know this is not a smart answer.

Next I searched for "火ノ寺" on the Internet.
[Here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Naruto_characters#Asuma_Sarutobi)
and
[here](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/NARUTO_-%E3%83%8A%E3%83%AB%E3%83%88-%E3%81%AE%E7%99%BB%E5%A0%B4%E4%BA%BA%E7%89%A9)
it was.

It turned out to be a proper noun appeared in _The Naruto_ (Japanese: ナルト)
_manga_ and anime series that is a genre of _ninja_. In addition, there were
other similar expressions using ノ instead of の like "木ノ葉 _Ko-no-ha_ " and
"木ノ葉丸 _Ko-no-ha Maru_ ", they were all proper nouns.

It happens that in naruto's answer there is a reasonable explanation that ノ
are often used in traditional proper nouns, and I think it is a pretty
promising answer. However, I considered the reason further.

If you are interested in knowing about _ninja_ and know it well, I think that
you know to call a **woman _ninja_** " **くノ一** **_ku-no-ichi_** ". When you
break down a _kanji_ character "女" into strokes, it will become "く, ノ and 一
_ku_ , _no_ and _ichi_ ".

I would like to think that ノ in "くノ一" inspired the author who considered the
proper nouns in his _managa_ like "火ノ寺 _Hi-no-tera_ ", "木ノ葉 _Ko-no-ha_ " and
"木ノ葉丸 _Ko-no-ha Maru_ ".
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2017-07-12T11:27:49.110
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2017-08-05T06:03:09.067
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answer