Why do Japanese last names so long?

The word Japan means "the land of the rising sun".

The origin of the name of Japan:

Japan was not originally called Japan. In ancient Japanese mythology, the Japanese called it the "Eight Continents", "Eight Island Countries", etc. According to the records of "Hanshu" and "Houhanshu", in ancient my country, Japan was called "Japanese" or "Japanese country". In the fifth century AD, after Japan was unified, the country was named "Yamato". Because the ancient Japanese worshiped the sun god, they regarded the sun as their country's totem. According to legend, in the early seventh century, Japan's Prince Shotoku wrote in his letter of credence to Emperor Yang of Sui: "The prince at sunrise is the prince at sunset." This was the prototype of Japan's country name. It was not until the second half of the seventh century that Japan sent Tang Shi to change its country's name to "Japan", which means "the place where the sun rises". It was later used and became Japan's official country name. "New Tang Book·Japanese Biography" records: In the first year of Xianheng (670), the Japanese state sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty. At this time, the Japanese state had "accustomed themselves to Xia Yan slightly, hated the Japanese name, and changed its name to Japan." The envoy said that because of the recent sunrise, In addition, in Chinese, "Fuso" and "Japanese" are also nicknames for the name of Japan.

The origin of Japanese names

1. The origin of surnames

In ancient times, the Japanese did not have surnames, only first names. Later, with the development of production, especially after entering class society, surnames and surnames first appeared among the ruling class. The clan is a political organization in ancient Japan. Each clan has its own name, which is called "family name". The clan name was named based on the position the clan held in the court or the place under the jurisdiction of the clan. For example, the department in charge of sacrificial affairs in the imperial court was called the Jibu clan, and the clan that managed the Jibu clan was called the Jibu clan. The Izumo and Omi clans were the clans that ruled the Izumo and Omi areas. The "surname" in ancient Japan is a title given to a family to indicate the social and political status of the family. There are dozens of surnames, which are similar to titles and are hereditary. There is a clear hierarchy between the surnames. For example: Chen, Lian, Jun, Zhi, etc. In addition to family names and surnames, a new title called Miao appeared in the ninth and tenth centuries AD. Miao means descendant or branch. Miao is the new surname of a family after it separates from the original clan. To put it simply, ancient Japanese surnames had three parts: surname, surname, and Miaoyu, each of which represented certain meanings. The name of an ancient nobleman is often very long, such as "Fujiwara Courtier Kujo Kanemi". Among them: Fujiwara is the family name, courtier is the surname, Kujo is the Miao character, and Kaneshi is the given name. Later, a large number of new Miao characters were added, and the surname, surname, and Miao characters gradually merged into one, collectively called Miao characters: In today's Japanese, Miao characters mean what we usually call surnames. Among the aristocratic ruling class that has both a surname and a Miao character, the emperor is an exception. Historically, Japanese emperors did not have surnames, only first names. In ancient times, the emperor was considered to be a descendant of the gods and had supreme power, so there was no need to have a surname. Not only the emperor, but also the children of the empress and Tenlei have no surnames (the emperor's daughter can take her husband's surname when she grows up and gets married).

Family names, surnames and Miao characters are symbols of power, so using these titles in front of the first name was the privilege of the Japanese ruling class at that time. However, the vast majority of working people have never had a surname, only a first name. After the Meiji Restoration (1868), Japan abolished the feudal hierarchy. In the third year of Meiji (1870), the Japanese government decided that all civilians could give themselves surnames. However, due to long-term habits, many people still dare not win by themselves. For this reason, the Japanese government stipulated again in the eighth year of Meiji (1875) that all citizens must have a surname. From then on, every household in Japan had a surname. The son inherited his father's surname, and the wife took her surname. This inheritance has been passed down from generation to generation, and continues to this day.

2. The meaning of surnames

The Japanese are the nation with the most surnames in the world. According to statistics, there are currently about 110,000 surnames in Japan, of which more than 400 are the most common.

Japanese surnames all have certain meanings. Taking the name of a place as a surname is a major feature. For example: some people live at the foot of a mountain, so they use "山下" or "山本" as their surname; some people live next to paddy fields, so they call them "Tianbian". Many Japanese surnames end with the word "mura", such as Nishimura, Okamura, Morizai, Kimura, etc. These surnames were originally derived from place names or village names. In addition, there are many surnames that represent natural phenomena, social life, and ideologies. From the sun, moon, stars and people to flowers, birds, fish and insects, from occupation, residence to religious beliefs, almost everything can be used as a surname. For example: Takasaki means the protruding part of the island, Odai means the square in front of the palace, white birds and little bears are animals; Wakamatsu and Takasugi are plants; Takahashi and Uju represent buildings; Onodera and Saionji represent religious beliefs; Hattori and Qin are the surnames of naturalized people (i.e. immigrants) who settled in Japan from China via Korea in ancient times.

After a Japanese woman gets married, she must take her husband’s surname (a man who marries his wife will take his wife’s surname). The famous table tennis player Matsuzaki Kimiyo changed her husband's surname to "Kurimoto Kimiyo" after getting married. After World War II, Japan's new civil law stipulated that couples can take the husband's surname or the wife's surname according to the decision made before marriage. However, most Japanese women still follow Japanese custom and take their husband's surname after marriage.

3. The meaning of names

Japanese names also have certain meanings. For example: loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, trust, etc. in a person's name represent ethics and morals; Liang, Ji, Xi, Jia, etc. represent auspiciousness; turtle, crane, pine, Qiandai, etc. represent longevity; Jundai, etc. represent far away Jiu, Guang, Bo, Hao, Yang, etc. represent wisdom.

Some words that mean death, illness and evil, such as thin, hungry, skinny, bitter, weird, evil, etc., are taboo among people and are generally not used as names.

Some names have specific meanings, such as: Yamamoto Isoroku. "Fifty-six" was named because his father was fifty-six years old when he was born. Japanese men's names mostly express prowess, British aggression, loyalty, etc. Such as: Toshio Kuroda, Takahiro Okuno, Hidematsu Wada, etc. In addition, ranking as a name is also a characteristic of men's names. Such as: Uren Goro, Shiroyama Saburo, Nitta Jiro (the second son). Men's names are widely used. Generally speaking, there are many names ending with the characters lang, xiong, male, husband, etc., such as: Kobayashi Hideyori, Sanbon Takeo, Kishi Toshio. Before the Meiji Restoration, there were many men called "Heiwei" or "Zuo (Right) Weimon". This type of name originated in ancient times. In the eighth century AD, the emperor's court established five military agencies responsible for protecting the emperor and the court, namely the Weimonfu, the Zuobeifu and the Zuobeifu, which were called the Five Guards Fu in Taiwan. Most of the people who were first called "Bingwei" or "Left (right) Guard" were sergeants serving in various government offices, and some were the immediate family members of these sergeants. However, these old names are rarely used nowadays.

Japanese women’s names are unique and very different from men’s. Women's names generally use words that are beautiful, elegant, and have soft pronunciation, such as Sayuri, Akako, Hanako, and Sawako. In Japanese history, many women were named after the professional titles of their husbands, fathers and other immediate family members. For example, Murasaki Shikibu, the author of the famous Japanese classic novel "The Tale of the Rikishi", was named "Shikibu" after her father's official position, Shikibu Cheng (an official in the Shikibu Province who was in charge of etiquette and other affairs in the ancient imperial court). The names of ancient Japanese women, except those of a few ruling classes such as aristocrats and landowners, were named Annu. Most of them are written in Japanese kana (Japanese letters, divided into two types: katakana and hiragana). This custom is still retained by some women. For example, the name of the movie actor Nakano Ryoko is written as "Nakano Kame Otoko" in Japanese. Among them, "Shangyi" is the kana letter. Ending with the character "子" is a characteristic of modern Japanese female names.

Nowadays, many female names have the character "子" at the end. For example, the names of famous contemporary singers Kato Tokiko and Seri Yoko are like this. In addition, there are many names ending with the characters such as Jiang, Dai, Mei, and Zhi, such as Ozeki Xingjiang, Ziye Mikiyo, Egami Yumi, Taiyuan Tomie, etc. The name of the Emperor of Japan is "Omyo" or "Taboo". The imperial title is granted by the previous emperor (that is, his father) after the emperor is born. Starting from the fifty-fourth emperor Nimei (reigned from 810 to 850 AD), the imperial name was composed of two characters. The so-called good word. They are auspicious characters carefully selected by famous scholars and court ministers such as Dr. Wen Zhang. For example, Emperor Horikawa's royal name is "Zenni", and Emperor Nimei's royal name is "Masara". The last character of many emperors' royal names is "ren". Later, Emperor Meiji stipulated this custom as a palace system, requiring that the last character of all crown princes' names must use "ren", and also stipulated that all princesses The last character of the name must be the character "子". For example, the imperial name of Emperor Taisho was Yoshihito; and the imperial name of the current emperor is Hirohito. In addition to his formal royal name, the emperor also has a palace name and a nickname, which are all names the emperor often uses in daily life. For example, the palace names of the Meiji and Taisho emperors were "Unomiya" and "Meigong" respectively. After the emperor's death, he still had a title that was forced upon him by his descendants. According to different meanings, this title can be divided into two types: one is called "posthumous name" and the other is called "chasing number". The former has the beautiful meaning of praising the emperor's merits during his lifetime, but the latter has no such meaning. For example: Shomu, Xiaoqian, and Chengde are the posthumous titles of these three emperors respectively; Daigo, Murakami, and Higashiyama are the posthumous titles of these three emperors. 4. The composition and distinction of surnames and first names. Japanese surnames may have one Chinese character, or several Chinese characters. For example: Mori, Matsumoto, Ukita, Mushakoji, Kankai Yukoji. In ancient times, there were even surnames with seven Chinese characters, such as: Dashenxiatun Cangtianbe. Generally speaking, the most modern Japanese surnames have two Chinese characters, followed by three Chinese characters, then one Chinese character, and very few have more than four Chinese characters.

Japanese names are composed of one Chinese character or two Chinese characters. For example, [Quanyang] Yi. [Morishita] Yoko, [Tanizaki] Junichiro. [Sakaida] Kakiemon. Most modern Japanese names have two Chinese characters, and names with more than four or five Chinese characters are very rare.

The order of Japanese surnames and given names is the same as that of Chinese Han people, with the surname first and the given name last. However, due to the inconsistency in the number of characters in Japanese names, it brings a lot of trouble to distinguish the first and last names. People from other countries often can't tell which characters are first names and which characters are surnames. For example, Chinese people generally know that Taihei in Taiping Masahiro is the surname and Masahiro is the given name. However, with a name like "Yagishita Hiro", it is not easy to tell that "Yagishita" is the surname and "Hiro" is the given name. Because "Yagi" is also a surname in Japanese. For the sake of convenience, Japanese people often separate their first and last names in various ways when signing formally. For example, Mori Ogai, Wai Shangqing, and Nikaido Susumu are written as "Mori Ogai", "Nai Shangqing", and "Nikaido Susumu" respectively. In this way, the surname and first name are clear at a glance.

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