It makes searching easier, because all dowsing rod types are kept in one place. I seriously wouldn't expect anyone to anticipate that we had two tags for them, differing only in plurality.
Posted under General
is what threw me off since she is holding a dowsing rod but one of the S-type single.
As far as I know, at least in terms of dowsing-rod lore, the Y-type is the first type and is the classic dowsing-rod.
I don't know if the tags on pixiv can shed any more light on how its defined.
Although in this post it might turn out not to be a dowsing rod.
Hmm, doing some brief research, it appears dowsing with sticks is entirely a western import to Japan, and apparently westerners who practice it use both the y-shaped stick and the pair of bent wires (supposedly more common in modern times). On Pixiv, it's badly tagged (as one might expect), and there is no Pixiv encyclopedia entry, but a search for ダウジング (dowsing) reveals pretty much exclusively the pair of bent wires style even where Nazrin's not involved.
That's what I was thinking initially, but it seems that both forms come from European tradition. Perhaps the Japanese only grabbed onto the 2-stick version when they imported it.
EDIT: Even doing a google image search for dowsing rod in English in singular form comes up with more 2-bent-wire style than single-wooden-Y style.
If we count the images in google search then it's true L-shape type are more than Y-shape, but the latter results are not a neglect-able number, i.e. you can notice its existence very easily.
I don't have the passion to argue more about plural or single in this case, it's up to majority vote. Just that the concept of "dowsing rod" is by no mean a natural pair. If other types appear later on, we will implicate them all to the single "dowsing rod".
At least for me when I do a Bing search I get more Y-style rods. Although its more of a 60-40 split between Y and L style.
The problem is that even with this, its enough support that dowsing rod isn't just the two L shaped dowsing rods, even if they are in the majority.
Although the problem with this is that how much of the L-style is used simply because its associated with Nazrin?
At this point, I think that it's a matter of mere preference.
+1 for dowsing rod.
葉月 said:
It makes searching easier, because all dowsing rod types are kept in one place. I seriously wouldn't expect anyone to anticipate that we had two tags for them, differing only in plurality.
That's why we have wikis, but I agree that it's not the most reasonable case to expect users to check.