or "taguiran"; and "shirayuki" may be spelled as "shiroyuki/' 

 "hakusetsu," "hakuyuki," or "byakusetsu." 



(b) Three systems of romanizing are currently used in Japan. 

 The Hebon-shiki, or Hepburn system, is the most widely used inside 

 and outside of Japan. This system has been modified in various 

 ways by different authors. The Kunrei shiki (official system) and the 

 Nihon-shiki (Japanese system) are alternative romanization systems 

 with use confined mainly to Japan. Depending on the system used, 

 romanizing may result in different spellings for the same names and 

 terms. The following examples illustrate differences among the three 

 systems: 



Hebon Kunrei Nihon 



fugenzo 



hugenzo 



hugenzo 



jishu 



zishu 



disyu 



tsutsuji 



tutuzi 



tutuzi 



shirayuki 



sirayuki 



sirayuki 



(c) Japanese and other writers sometimes mix romanizing 

 systems within the same article rather than adhering to any one 

 system. For example, "sirayuki" in the Kunrei system may appear in 

 the same article with "shizuka" in the Hepburn system. Additionally, 

 mixing of systems may occur within a single word. In the word 

 "hatushimo," for example, "tu" is from the Kunrei system and "shi" is 

 from the Hepburn system. 



(d) Guidelines prepared by the U.S. Library of Congress 

 (1983) and other libraries for word division when romanizing 

 Japanese, Chinese, and Korean are used primarily for cataloging 

 purposes. Because of their complexity, however, these guidelines 

 are often not used with precision by writers and others outside of 

 library systems. For example, "yamazakura" may be rendered as 

 "yama-zakura" or as "yama zakura," "Yae-sakonno-zakura" may be 

 written as "Yae-sakon-no-zakura" or "Yaesakon-no-zakura," and 

 "Asahiyama" may appear as "Asahi-yama" or "Asahi yama." 



Although the use of Kunrei shiki is officially encouraged by the 

 Japanese Government, the decision to use any particular system is 

 largely a writer's choice. After examining the various choices, we 

 settled on the modified Hepburn system as employed by Katsumata 

 in "Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary" (1954 and later 

 editions) and also by the U.S. Library of Congress. It is a system 

 most widely used and most easily understood by western readers. 

 Some exceptions are those romanized names and terms that have 

 been established through long use. In these instances, the names 

 and terms have been preserved as they appeared in earlier 



