Why are Japanese surnames so weird?

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fish sheep Records fresh look at the history of

author: Gulang hermit

Editor: eat hard it

#01 .

On the Internet, we often see all kinds of weird Japanese names collected by Chinese netizens, either for ridicule or entertainment. For example, "My grandson Tomomi", "Anus is strong", "My wife Shinji", "Pig nose Chihiro", "Gantou Naoki" and so on.

Many netizens laughed and also asked why the Japanese have such strange names? How did these people's parents get their names? If we want to understand a country's surname culture, we must look for the reasons from the country's history.

In Japan during the Yayoi period (simultaneous with the Qin and Han Dynasties in China),The level of civilization is still very low, people only have first names, not surnames. It was not until the 4th century AD, Yamato established the first imperial regime in Japanese history that it came out of its original state. At this time, Chinese culture began to influence Japan, and the surname system also entered Japan during this period.

At that time, the Japanese rulers established class rule in order to "not be noble and lowly", so they "given" the nobles with surnames. According to records: "The name of the clan is named after the position held by the clan in the imperial court or the place where the clan lives and governs. For example, the department in charge of offering sacrifices in the imperial court is called the Jibu, and the clan that manages the Jibu is called the Jibu. The Izumo and Omi clans are the clans that rule the Izumo and Omi regions. In ancient Japan, 'surname' was a title given to a clan to indicate the social and political status of the clan. There are dozens of surnames. , it is similar to the title, it is hereditary. There is a clear hierarchy between the surnames. For example: Chen, Lian, Jun, Zhi, etc."

It is worth mentioning that as the supreme ruler The emperor, from ancient times to the present, has not had a surname, but only a given name. In addition, the name of the royal family members must have the character "benevolence" for men and the character for "zi" for girls. Such as the familiar "Hirohito", " Deren ", "Aiko" and so on. Because the Japanese believe that the emperor is the symbol of Amaterasu in the world,There is no need to use a worldly surname. In addition, members of the royal family will be called "Xu-Xu Gong", such as Hatohiko Asaka, one of the culprits of the Nanjing Massacre. In the emperor's , the prince (princess) will take her husband's surname after marriage.

As the ancient emperors generally had many wives and concubines, the number of descendants of the emperors also increased day by day. In order to save the expenses of the royal family, some distant relatives were sent to the place by the emperor and given surnames to become the nobles of the country. Like "Genji", "Hiraji", "Tachibana", "Fujiwara", etc. Among them, Genji and Heiji are Heian period , a famous Japanese aristocratic family.

And nobles also have a large number of collateral descendants, so some surnames have many branches. Taking "Fujiwara" as an example, they have separated the familiar surnames such as "Kondo", "Ito", "Endo", "Kato" and so on.

In ancient times only nobles and samurai could have surnames, so in general, ancient Japanese names were quite normal. Like Tokugawa , Oda, Uesugi, Abe, Kibi, etc. after

# 02 .

Meiji Restoration ,Japan began its modernization reform. First, the feudal hierarchy was abolished, and the nobles and samurai lost their original positions. Then the emperor ordered that the common people of the whole country could take their own surnames. Despite permission, many people are not used to adding a surname to their first name, and very few responders.

But for the country to reform, it needs to establish a modern system of household registration, taxation, military service, etc., and it can be better managed with a surname. It is conceivable that if people do not have a surname, there will be a lot of Dalang and Jiro, which will bring confusion to management. So in 1875, Japan promulgated the "Order of Miao Characters Must Be Called for Civilians", which stipulated that "every citizen must take a surname" and enforced it.

At that time, more than 90% of the people in Japan were civilians, and they all had names and no surnames. What's worse is that at the time the Meiji Restoration was just starting, these people were almost illiterate, and the literacy rate was very low. In order to complete the registration task, you can only choose surnames at will, and some strange surnames appear.

Some people take what they see as their surname For example, if they live in the mountains, there are "mountain", "yamada", etc.; "Watanabe", "Shintoto", etc. appeared; and those with bamboo forests near their homes,There are "Takeuchi", "Takeshita", etc.; those who live in the valleys are "Changgu", "Fanggu", etc.; also fall into this category.

There are some animals that are seen as surnames, such as "Niuda", "Kumada", "Inoguchi", "Arima" and so on. It is also this type of surname that led to the emergence of strange phenomena, especially some people's surnames also include "pig" and "turtle". Of course, the turtle has always been a symbol of auspiciousness in Chinese culture, but it has only gradually become indecent in the evolution of popular culture. In Japanese culture, the cultural symbol of turtle has not changed, so it is not strange to use "tortoise" as a surname, but it is just a misunderstanding of Chinese folk culture.

Living place names have also become an important source of modern Japanese surnames, such as "Edogawa", " Hasegawa" are famous rivers in Japan, and there is nothing wrong with this surname OK. The famous "my grandson" surname is actually not because of kinship, but from My grandson city in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, which is also a surname based on a place name. If you understand this, you won't find this surname strange. In addition, the surnames such as "My Wife" and "Azuma" are likely to be the case. For example, Japan has "Azuma Island". During the Russo-Japanese War , a armored cruiser of the Japanese army was called "Azuma".

For example, farmers have "rice" and "rice book", the surname of the flower grower is "Juchuan", the surname of the gatekeeper is "Guardian", the surname of the pig farmer is "Pig Feed" and so on. Among them, the familiar " dog " does not mean that a dog is a father, but the founder of this surname is a dog.

And some people with a little culture take the surnames of historical celebrities as surnames, so there are surnames such as Toyotomi, Ping, Tokugawa, Hojo, Date and so on. just (change:, however) they are not related to these famous historical figures. Yuan Jingxiang in "Doraemon", although "Yuan" is the surname of the ancient nobles, it is very likely that her ancestors used it fraudulently.

# 03 . only part of

above Japanese surnames sources, there are many other sources, this would Not listed one by one. It is precisely the random surnames chosen by modern Japanese, and the fact that most of them have very low educational level, that the whole country has more than 110,000 surnames and various strange names.

It is worth noting that,Some Japanese names are not really weird, but they have been "blackened" by contemporary Chinese Internet vocabulary. For example, the surname "Go to bed", which is a normal surname in Japan, has a different meaning in the hearts of Chinese otaku. There are also "turtle" and "my grandson", all of which are misunderstandings caused by cultural barriers and we do not understand their cultural background. In addition, during the development of Japanese kanji, some word meanings have changed, resulting in different interpretations , which is also the reason why people think Japanese names are strange. For example, "Kouyang" is a famous example.

In Japan, many surnames are created in a hurry by a group of uneducated commoners, so it is normal for all kinds of strange surnames to appear. We must pay attention to the cultural differences between the two countries when interpreting, and avoid making jokes.

Follow the WeChat public account "History of the Fish and Sheep" to view:

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