# 爪先 and 爪革



## Riccardo91

Dear Japanese forum,

I've found a term in a cartoon that is giving me some doubts.

A thief has to steal a couple of ametists which are said to be on the 爪先 of some shoes. These shoes, however, are shown in the video, and the jewels are not positioned on the toes, but on the vamps, which as far as I know translates in Japanese with the term 爪革.

Can the two terms be considered as synonymous in this context or do you think this usage is improper?

Thank you very much!


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## karlalou

爪先 is toe.
I am not familiar with the names of shoe parts, but the top of a foot is called （足の）甲（こう）, and I feel it's strange when 足の甲 is called 爪先. There might be some occasions that someone carelessly think that it's at the toe when looking at it from a distance or when looking at an unclear or very small image..


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## Alkanna

下駄の爪革・爪皮・爪掛け・向こう掛け - 小物で着回す着物生活

つまかわ【爪皮／爪革】の意味 - goo国語辞書


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## frequency

Alkanna said:


> 下駄の爪革・爪皮・爪掛け・向こう掛け - 小物で着回す着物生活
> つまかわ【爪皮／爪革】の意味 - goo国語辞書


Thanks for your help!

We often say 靴の先 if you want to say this.

If I'm wrong, post us back.
Strictly speaking, if you Riccardo want to set a jewel on your toe, you'll have to visit a plastic surgery clinic. But the use of 爪先 for 靴の先 is enough understandable.

爪革 may be okay, but it may be difficult to be understood because it's a special jargon.


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## Riccardo91

> Strictly speaking, if you Riccardo want to set a jewel on your toe, you'll have to visit a plastic surgery clinic.


What I meant was the toe (the tip) of the shoes, the part pointed by the finger in your image. ^^

My shoes are similar to this one: www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=21715888
They're open on the front part, so they have no tip. The jewel is in the black part, where the golden (?) decoration is in my image. Can 爪先 be used to refer to that part?

(I'd like to post the image from my cartoon to make things more clear, but I'm afraid that would be against the rules of the forum...)

Thank you very much!


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## Alkanna

I just learned that I shouldn't have posted links without adding an explanation about their contents. I am sorry. Here it is :

-1 -雨や泥などをよけるために、下駄などの爪先につけるおおい。爪掛け。

-2- 下駄の爪革・爪皮・爪掛け・向こう掛け


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## frequency

Alkanna said:


> -1 -雨や泥などをよけるために、下駄などの爪先につけるおおい。爪掛け。-2- 下駄の爪革・爪皮・爪掛け・向こう掛け


Thank you for posting extra information


Riccardo91 said:


> They're open on the front part, so they have no tip.



Good. The point is that, you know, if you wear the shoes, your toes are exposed. So 爪先 refers to the exposed toes and makes a reader imagine them―confusion arises.
So I'd still call it 靴の先 which would generally mean the front part of shoes.

You can call the black part of the shoes ベルト and 靴のベルトの先. I'm afraid if this is somewhat lengthy, and thus disturbs the flow. If you need to describe where the jewels are positioned on that shoes _precisely_, this would be better..I know you can select the better one


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## Riccardo91

Dear frequency,

thank you, as always, for your precise messange. ^^
My problem is that, alas, i have to translate the Japanese term, which is 爪先, and thus I have to decide which Italian term is closer to the Japanese one.

If we feel (like it appears to me), that 爪先 is quite a strange usage in this case, I'll translate it literally ignoring the video, otherwise I'll choose something nearer to the English term "vamps", if 爪先 can cover this meaning too.

Thank you to everyone!


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## karlalou

We also call the toe of a shoe 靴のつま先.
I think if it's at the top of a shoe, 靴の甲 is acceptable.
According to this page, the shoe parts other than the bottom part is called アッパー, and it uses 靴の甲 for the explanation for it. I believe your texts are not for shoe specialists that I think アッパー is not suitable.

Yeah, 靴の甲 seems to be the word for it.


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## frequency

Riccardo91 said:


> I'll choose something nearer to the English term "vamps",


Riccardo, don't forget the shoes in your story are the ones, platform shoes, shown in your post #5, 靴の甲 doesn't work.


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## karlalou

Riccardo91 said:


> My shoes are similar to this one: www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=21715888
> They're open on the front part, so they have no tip. The jewel is in the black part, where the golden (?) decoration is in my image. Can 爪先 be used to refer to that part?



OK. I see that the writer's word choice of 靴のつま先 is not so bad to concisely describe it. Though 靴の先 might be better to ambiguate the meaning, 靴のつま先 just sounds smoother and sounds more common than 靴の先. I think it can be called サンダルの帯, but the writer probably didn't want it too explanatory.
I think Italians are better at those that you'll find a precise word for it.


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## frequency

The platform shoes don't have 靴のつま先.


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## Riccardo91

It's a term more ambiguous than i Thought, after all...
Thank you very much to everyone! I'll see what to do with my translation.

Thanks!


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