Waterfalls and their rivers certainly has this magical charm to them.
The river does snake back-and-forth by the looks of it? So if you imagine that being its body then the waterfall could be seen as its roaring head, sort-of.
--
I were quite confused for a moment there, but they've mirrored the kanji for some reason.
So it should be 日光、龍頭瀧 and 日光、霧降の瀧.
Regarding the difference in writing to 竜頭滝, it appears to just be using more simple kanji with the same possible pronunciation.
For example, if you look up 龍頭 in the goo dictionary then it will give results for 竜頭.
I also came across a post on note (https://note.com/gatokukubo/n/n336774a5e4e6) that had a short point pointing out that 滝 is 竜 with 水 added. So maybe dragon's head/maw was just some local name for waterfalls in general back in the days? Not unlike how many fancy names in the US are simply "the lake" or "the river" or something along those lines in one of the natives languages.
"I were quite confused for a moment there, but they've mirrored the kanji for some reason."
Lots of old Japanese is written Right to Left. E.g. the names on many temple gates.
Then there's the writing on the right hand side of ships and many vehicles because on moving objects writing is front to back which is L to R on the left and R to L on the right - and very confusing, especially as it isn't consistent. Plus they sometimes do this in English too so you see IXAT on the drivers side of taxis.
I guess if it's names of things you'd usually find the type suffix at the end at least. Curious to know how they discerned other cases beyond it being from the front of the object itself.
Waterfalls and their rivers certainly has this magical charm to them.
The river does snake back-and-forth by the looks of it? So if you imagine that being its body then the waterfall could be seen as its roaring head, sort-of.
--
I were quite confused for a moment there, but they've mirrored the kanji for some reason.
So it should be 日光、龍頭瀧 and 日光、霧降の瀧.
Regarding the difference in writing to 竜頭滝, it appears to just be using more simple kanji with the same possible pronunciation.
For example, if you look up 龍頭 in the goo dictionary then it will give results for 竜頭.
I also came across a post on note (https://note.com/gatokukubo/n/n336774a5e4e6) that had a short point pointing out that 滝 is 竜 with 水 added. So maybe dragon's head/maw was just some local name for waterfalls in general back in the days? Not unlike how many fancy names in the US are simply "the lake" or "the river" or something along those lines in one of the natives languages.
There is also some interesting opinions on origins and usage differences between 龍 and 竜 here: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/51991/
There's a national park in the area http://www.kirifuri-kogen.jp/ so that second waterfall apparently has no special name itself?
"I were quite confused for a moment there, but they've mirrored the kanji for some reason."
Lots of old Japanese is written Right to Left. E.g. the names on many temple gates.
Then there's the writing on the right hand side of ships and many vehicles because on moving objects writing is front to back which is L to R on the left and R to L on the right - and very confusing, especially as it isn't consistent. Plus they sometimes do this in English too so you see IXAT on the drivers side of taxis.
I see, thanks!
I guess if it's names of things you'd usually find the type suffix at the end at least. Curious to know how they discerned other cases beyond it being from the front of the object itself.