Talk:Old Russian Consulate in Hakodate

DYK nom

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by TJMSmith (talk) 02:22, 24 March 2021 (UTC)

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Old Russian Consulate, Hakodate

• ... that before the consulate was ready, the first Russian consul in Hakodate lived in local temples? Source: "The US consul, Rice, was based at Jōgenji Temple, and in November 1858 he was joined by an experienced and scholarly Russian consul, named Goshkevich, a veteran of the 1855 Russian Mission to Japan. Like the American consulate, the Russian equivalent initially resided in the grounds of Jitsugyōji, another local temple..." 1)
  • ALT1:... that the Old Russian Consulate in Hakodate (pictured) was designed by a German? Source: "The Art Deco-influenced wood frame and brick structure was designed by German architect Richard Seel and used as a consulate up until 1944." 2

• Comment: Follow up or sorts to the nom for Former British Consulate of Hakodate. I've had only three DYK nominations so far (one I withdrew, but was really destined for failure anyway, while the other two were successful), so I don't need to do QPQ (while I have done two reviews, I should probably get started on doing some more).

Created/expanded by MSG17 (talk). Self-nominated at 03:22, 9 March 2021 (UTC).

• New enough and long enough. Hook is sourced. I have some concerns regarding the article text however. "However, the land earmarked for foreign offices wasn't ready yet" seems incorrect, as the Ivings and Russian Embassy sources suggest there was no land earmarked, so there was no question of it being ready. It seems one of the missions of the early consular officials was to find such land.

• In the lead, "It was the first foreign diplomatic mission in the city after opening up to trade in the late 1800s, the first Russian diplomatic mission in Japan, and it also introduced the Russian Orthodox Church to Japan." is unsupported by the body. I note the Russian embassy source notes the church was the first church, but this is not exactly the same claim as introducing the whole religion.
• Before noting in the text a church was saved by fire, the fact that a church was built on the consulate grounds should be introduced.(This could be used to support claim of first church in Japan.)
• No QPQ needed. ALT1 also sourced, but less interesting. Noting existence of Template:Did you know nominations/Former British Consulate of Hakodate, if there is a desire for a joint hook this should be acted upon soon and/or the Britsh Consulate template should be removed from the approved prep list in the meantime to prevent mix-up. CMD (talk) 06:51, 12 March 2021 (UTC)
  • Thanks for the review. I will fix these issues. I don't want to run a joint hook, but rather a follow-up one (optimally the day after the British Consulate hook if that is possible). MSG17 (talk) 14:00, 12 March 2021 (UTC)
    • Modified the lead to be more accurate. I found a source that stated it had the first consulate building in Japan, so I modified the article to reflect that.
    • For the earmarked land, Iving says "In 1857, Edo had ordered that a foreign settlement like Nagasaki’s Dejima be built on reclaimed land just off the harbour; however, as Hakodate’s population of foreign residents was virtually non-existent at that time, the work was postponed. By the time it had begun again, the handful of Western merchants who had come to the port had already taken to living amongst the local residents. Thus, when the land-reclamation was completed, the lots earmarked for the foreign settlement were utilized for the construction of warehouses (godowns) by both Japanese and foreign traders rather than for residences.[36] Foreign consuls in this period took up residence and conducted consular affairs in local temples, and almost a decade would pass before foreign-style consulate buildings appeared, giving the town a more cosmopolitan appearance." In addition, the Russian embassy source states that the dispute was not on finding a piece of land when they previously had none, but on finding a better piece of land than given, with Goshkevich even alluding to the Japanese policy by stating "Your efforts to get all the foreigners to live in the same place are useless." Nevertheless, I have also modified that bit as the land that was there was meant for foreign settlers in general, not just diplomatic missions.
      • Ah, I hadn't put it all together like that. Please clarify "the Japanese site", I think it refers to "the originally allocated site", but I'll pass this DYK in the meantime as that isn't specifically related to the requirements here. Forgot to note above, but the image is appropriately licenced. Regarding running hooks on consecutive days, you will have to request this at WP:DYK, although no guarantees. CMD (talk) 15:41, 12 March 2021 (UTC)
        • Thanks! Also, good point, I modified the wording on that. One more thing - the current building was built in 1908, so if the image runs with the first hook it would be good to note that it isn't the first building but the most recent one.