I'm reading a passage from a Japanese novel and happened upon an unfamiliar piece of vocabulary "勢力図的な." When I tried looking it up in an online dictionary, I got the definition of "Power relationships" for the term 勢力図, however I am unsure what this refers to exactly, does it refer to how much power person A has over person B in a relationship? Or maybe something else entirely?
If someone could explain the meaning and in what context it might be used, that would be great!
勢力図 would be a 'diagram' showing the distribution of power relationships or influence, where they extend and how far, i.e. Their 'sphere/range of influence'.
As an image, the influence of K-Pop girl groups in Japan.
As a sentence example.
織田家内部の勢力図が大きく塗り変えられた。
The power (political) influence map of the Oda family was drastically redrawn.
I think that in this case, ～的な would be akin to 'a kind of' / 'a sort of'.
勢力図的なもの作りました。
I made kind of a diagram of the spheres of power/influence.
Edit (Feb.26): @mackygoo's answer is helpful in understanding that this expression has taken on a broader context and can be used with many visual representations of user preference, market dominance, product trends, voting habits, etc.
I think that user27280's answer regarding '勢力図的な' is almost correct. (+1)
The meaning I expressed as "almost" is that the explanation of "勢力図" and the explanation of "～的な" are perfect. However, the explanation of the last example sentence is inadequate, so I think that those who read this answer cannot think it as a satisfactory answer. Even if there is such a reason, it is regrettable that someone downvoted the answer.
Well, I'll present my answer.
As a means to explain something to other people in an easy-to-understand manner, there is a method of expressing something with a piece of paper using pictures or figures. "勢力図 a diagram showing the distribution of (military) power relationships or lit. power diagram" is a technique that expresses "power relationships" as figures or pictures and generally with only one piece of paper. I think it is a very easy-to-understand method.
I would like to explain what kind of nuance exists in "勢力図的な", what kind of situation it is used, and how it differs from "勢力図".
Let's think about the situation where you want to express something like superiority or power relationships easily and clearly.
People using the phrase with "勢力図的な" can come up with various ways as a means of expressing superiorities or power relations, but none of them can be an exact expression method as is said in "帯{おび}に短{みじか}し襷{たすき}に長{なが}し There is no suitable one".
Although none of them can be said to be exact, the better way to express the intention up to now is "勢力図".
"勢力図" is superior in that "the scope of influence of factions" can be understood "easily/accurately/at a glance".
Since 勢力図 is originally used to represent the power distribution in the feudal age, it has the nuance of bloodiness accompanying wars or battles.
But what you want to convey is somewhat different from the blood smelling one that the word "勢力図" has, so you cannot use "勢力図" as it is.
However, since the superiority as the expression means possessed by "勢力図" cannot be excluded, the author used the expression "勢力図的な" in the sense of "like 勢力図 or 勢力図-ish".
After finishing the above explanation, if I read the user27280's answer once again, the explanation of "勢力図" and the explanation of "～的な" are essentially the same as my understanding.
When I searched sentences using ”勢力図的な” on the Internet, the following ones were found.
As for the phrase with "勢力図、的な" in the last sentence, I understand that the author wished to express an intermediate nuance between "勢力図" and "勢力図的な" so he/she intentionally used a "読点 comma" there.
The title of the question:
Meaning and usage of the word “勢力図(的な}”
The text of the question:
... and happened upon an unfamiliar piece of vocabulary "勢力図的な."
When I tried looking it up in an online dictionary, I got the definition of "Power relationships" for the term 勢力図, ...
Inspired by naruto's comment, I re-examined what the questioner asked.
When you see the title of the question, you can see that the questioner is asking about "勢力図的な" clearly. When you read the text of the question, the questioner came across the explanation of "勢力図" in searching the dictionary for the meaning of "勢力図的な". Reading the definition of "勢力図" written in the dictionary the questioner became confused, so the questioner asked the question.
According to the Japanese dictionary, 勢力図 is explained as follows.
勢力図（せいりょくず）とは、個人や組織などの勢力が、どれほどの範囲に対して支配力や影響力を持っているかを示す分布図のことである。
勢力図 is a distribution chart showing the extent to which a certain power, such as the power of individuals or of organizations, have control and influence over a range.
On the other hand, the explanation in English of "勢力図" obtained by the questioner is as follows.
Power relationships
Obviously, the explanation of the Japanese dictionary I got and the explanation that the questioner got in English are essentially different.
In the Japanese dictionary, the range where the power of a person with certain power has influence is shown as a distribution, but the relationship between two or more people with power is not mentioned as the definition of 勢力図.
On the other hand, though it is ambiguous whether "power relationships", which is explained in English obtained by the questioner, means the relationship between the ruler and the ruled people living in the controlled range, or the relationship between the different controlling powers, it means a certain power relatonships between the parties concerned.
I understand that the ambiguous explanation of English caused the misunderstanding of the questioner, so I'll answer the following questions as follows.
for the term 勢力図, however I am unsure what this refers to exactly, does it refer to how much power person A has over person B in a relationship? Or maybe something else entirely?
"勢力図" does not explain the relationship of how much power A has over B. It merely explains the range dominated by rulers such as A, B and the like by means of a chart.
The relationship as to whether ruler A is dominant over ruler B is to be evaluated by the person who sees 勢力図.
In other word, 勢力図 itself does not evaluate the relationship of power between the rulers.
「勢力図的な」に関するuser27280さんの回答は、ほぼ正解だと思います。(+1)
具体的に言いますと、「勢力図」の説明と「～的な」の説明は完全です。但し、最後の例文の説明が不十分ですので、回答を読んでみて、「ああそうか」とまではいかないのでしょう。それでも-1を投票した人がいるのは残念です。
さて、私の回答に移ります。
あるものを他人に分かりやすく説明するための手段として、絵や図を用いて一枚の紙で表現する（一覧化する）方法があります。「勢力図」は、「勢力」を図としてしかも一般に一枚の紙で表現するもので、大変分かりやすい手法だと思います。
「勢力図的な」には、どのようなニュアンスがあり、どのような時に使い、「勢力図」とはどう違うのかを説明したいと思います。
状況的には、何かの優劣や力関係のようなものを簡単に、かつ分かりやすく伝えたいとします。
「勢力図的な」という表現を用いた人は、優劣や力関係を伝える方法として色々と思いつくのですが、どれも「帯{おび}に短｛みじか｝し襷｛たすき｝に長｛なが｝し There is no suitable one.」の例え通り、的確な表現手法が見つかりません。
どれも的確とまでは言えませんが、今までに思いついた表現方法で一番良いものは「勢力図」です。
「勢力図」は、「勢力の分布」が「簡単に/的確に/一覧でわかる」点で優れています。
しかし、今、伝えたいテーマとなっているようなものは、「勢力図」という言葉がもっているギラギラしたあるいは血{ち}生臭｛なまぐさ｝いものとは少し違うものなので、「勢力図」とは言い切れないのです。しかし、「力関係/優劣」を「一覧的に分かりやすく」表現できる点は「勢力図」が持っている特性と今表現手段として求めているものとは大変近いと思っています。
従って、「例えば勢力図のような」という意味合いで「勢力図的な」と表現しております。
以上の説明をした後、あらためてuser27280さんの回答を見ますと、「勢力図」の説明も、「～的な」の説明も本質的に私の理解と同じです。
「勢力図的な」をインターネットで調べると次のような用例が見つかります。
最後の用例にある「勢力図、的な」は、他の用例より「勢力図」と言い切ってしまっても良いが、それでも完全には「勢力図」とは言えないので「勢力図」と「勢力図的な」の中間的なニュアンスを持たすために「読点（、）」を用いています。
質問のタイトル:
Meaning and usage of the word “勢力図(的な}”
質問の本文（抜粋）：
... and happened upon an unfamiliar piece of vocabulary "勢力図的な."
When I tried looking it up in an online dictionary, I got the definition of "Power relationships" for the term 勢力図, ...
narutoさんのコメントを読んで、質問者は一体何を尋ねているのかを再度考えてみました。
質問のタイトルを見ますと明らかに「勢力図的な」を尋ねていることが分かります。
質問の本文を見ますと、「勢力図的な」を辞書で探している内に、「勢力図」の説明に出くわし、そこから「勢力図」の英訳を通じて何か分からなくなったようで質問しているのでしょう。
勢力図は、日本語の辞書によると、下記のように説明されております。
勢力図（せいりょくず）とは、個人や組織などの勢力が、どれほどの範囲に対して支配力や影響力を持っているかを示す分布図のことである。
しかしながら、質問者が得た「勢力図」の英語での説明は、
Power relationships
です。
明らかに、私が得た日本語の辞書の説明と、質問者が英語で得た説明とは本質的に違っております。
日本語辞書では、（多分複数の）ある力を有している者がどこに自分たちの力を及ぼしているかを分布的に示しているのであって、他の力がある者との関係性については言及しておりません。
一方、質問者が得た、英語での説明を見ますと、Power relationshipsの逐語訳では「力の関係性」ですから、支配している者と支配地域に住んでいる支配される者との力の関係なのか、異なる支配する勢力間の力の関係なのか分かりませんがそのような意味に受け取れます。
私は、英語の説明が曖昧のために質問者に誤解を与えていると解釈し、下記の質問に対して次のように回答します。
for the term 勢力図, however I am unsure what this refers to exactly, does it refer to how much power person A has over person B in a relationship? Or maybe something else entirely?
質問者が見た辞書の「勢力図」の説明である「Power relationships」は意味が曖昧であると思います。
「勢力図」はＡがＢに対してどれだけ力を持っているかという関係を説明するものではありません。あくまでも、支配者層ＡやＢ等がどの地域を支配しているかを図で説明しているだけです。
支配者層であるＡが他の支配者層Ｂに対して優勢であるかどうかの関係性は、勢力図を見た人が評価するものであって、勢力図自体ではＡ、Ｂ間の力関係を判断あるいは評価しておりません。
... The "problem", however, is when people make an adjective out of it -- 「最大公約数的な」. It suddenly becomes a few steps more colloquial in feeling, if not quite slangy. It becomes a pretty fuzzy buzzword without a clear-cut definition. Adding 「的な」 to random nouns and noun phrases is just a new trend in the language. If you listen to older people carefully, you will notice they rarely, if ever, do that like their children and grand-children do.