84494
I have a question regarding original title of Akira Kurosawa's [Throne of
Blood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throne_of_Blood) movie. This title is
pronounced "Kumonosu-jō" but written as 蜘蛛巣城. Why is possessive の particle
missing here and the title not written as 蜘蛛の巣城? Is it because it's a name of
a place? Is omission of particles in names a common thing? Are there any rules
regarding this?
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2021-03-08T02:11:34.577
84493
2021-03-10T11:03:54.400
27876
question
kanji particles
Presence of の in 蜘蛛巣城
The hidden の in proper names and/or fixed words have been asked several times
on this site, such as:

  * [Why did の disappear from 山手, but in 御茶ノ水 it's in katakana?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/2931)
  * [Seeing the invisible の in old names and words](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/23428)

The reason why such a spelling tradition exists is that, formal Japanese
documents had been written for a long time in all kanji, imitating Chinese,
and Chinese does not have a consistent genitive (possessive) marker. This is
partially applicable to English too, where we can say _spider web_ without any
affix in the middle. In Japanese, the same notion is represented by くものす (with
mandatory の) and you can certainly insert its kanji rendering (like 之), but
most times they did not, as it would not result in ambiguity because the
readers and writers naturally know what Japanese words exist or not.

The movie's plot is seemingly set in the Sengoku period, which the genitive-
less 蜘蛛巣城 beseems much better than the modernist 蜘蛛の巣城.
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2021-03-08T03:42:35.863
84494
2021-03-10T11:03:54.400
2021-03-10T11:03:54.400
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answer