Okinawan family name
Encyclopedia
Okinawan names today have only two components, the family name
s (surname
s or last names) first and the given name
s last. Okinawan family names represent the distinct historical and cultural background of the islands which now comprise Okinawa Prefecture
in Japan. Expatriates originally from Okinawa
also have these names.
(koseki
) system. Accordingly, an Okinawan name has only two components, a family name and a given name. A family name is called myōji (苗字 or 名字), uji (氏) or sei (姓), and a given name is called the "name" (名前, namae) or "lower name" (下の名前, shita no namae). The family name precedes the given name. The given name may be referred to as the "lower name" because, in vertically-written Japanese, the given name appears under the family name.
Japanese family names generally show regional variation, but Okinawan family names are known for its distinctiveness. In contrast it becomes increasingly difficult to find unique Okinawan given names.
(Chinese characters). Since the Japanese language
and allows for multiple possible "readings (pronunciations)" for each kanji, the reading of Okinawan family names written with the same characters varies. In addition, the Okinawan language
has its own means of reading Japanese kanji.
As in mainland Japan, historical names in Okinawa are more complicated. People with different social statuses bore different kinds of names, maintain several names to use in different occasions, and sometimes changed them in their lifetime.
was Umi-gurā (思五良). Warabi-nā were most prevalent among Okinawans, from the king to commoners, both male and female. They were the oldest component of Okinawan names as, like people in mainland Japan, the inhabitants of Ryukyu islands did not originally have names for families, clans or lineages. They were used as the official names during the early era of the Ryukyu Kingdom. They appeared even in appointment letters by the king, written mostly in hiragana
. It was during the 17th century that other name components prevailed among the samurai class.
A warabi-nā was given soon after birth. Although literally meaning childhood name, it was used by commoners for their entire life. While it was overshadowed by other name components, even adult male members of the samurai class used warabi-nā at home and when referring to their friends.
Later in history, stylized use of prefixes and suffixes differentiated social statuses. A commoner used neither a prefix nor suffix, a samurai used either a prefix or suffix, and an aristocrat used both a prefix and a suffix. For example, Tukū (徳) was a name for commoners, Umi-tukū (思徳) for samurai, and Umi-tuku-gani (思徳金) for aristocrats.
A set of warabi-nā appeared in the very beginning of recorded history and has not been changed since then. The number of warabi-nā pooled in society was extremely small. It was not uncommon for a warabi-nā to be shared by more than one person in a household. The first male child was usually named after his paternal grandfather. For example, the last king Shō Tai
had the warabi-nā Umi-jirā-gani (思次良金), which was also the name of his grandfather Shō Kō
.
In the naming conventions after the separation of the samurai class from peasants, only the samurai class was allowed to have kamei. Because the vast majority of the samurai families lacked domains to rule, they inherited fixed kamei. In contrast, an upper class member used the name of the fief he was given by the king. This means that his kamei was changed every time a different land was allotted. For example, Makishi Chōchū (1818–1862) originally had the kamei Itarashiki (板良敷) but was then given a fief of Ōwan (大湾) before being finally renamed to Makishi (牧志).
In early times, kamei were written predominantly in hiragana. After the conquest of the Ryūkyū Kingdom by Japan's Satsuma Domain in 1609, the Japanese-style use of Chinese characters (kanji
) was adopted. The Keichō Land Surveys of 1609-1611 probably conventionalized to some degree the choice of kanji for place names, and thus surnames based on them. In 1625 the Satsuma Domain instituted a . As a result, the kanji used to write kamei changed from characters that were common in mainland Japan to new, unique character combinations. For example, the name 東 (Higashi) was often changed to 比嘉 (Higa) or 比謝 (Hija), the name 前田 (Maeda) to 真栄田 (the same reading), 福山 (Fukuyama) to 譜久山 (the same reading), etc.
In practice, kamei represented a group who shared the founder of a relatively recent past. When it was necessary to distinguish branch families, the main family attached the prefix ufu (大, great) to its kamei while the suffix gwa (small), for example, was used for a branch family.
Officially, commoners did not have kamei. At some point in history, commoners in the capital region, Shuri
and Naha, started to assume kamei. However, kamei of commoners were differentiated verbally and in writing. The last syllable of a commoner's kamei was lengthened (e.g. Arakachī) while that of a samurai was not (e.g. Arakachi). For commoners, his warabi-nā is written first and is followed by his kamei. For example, Tarā (warabi-nā) from Yamagusiku was written as たら山城 (Tarā Yamagushiku).
Commoners in rural areas unofficially used names for households, which were also called Yā-n-nā (屋の名). They were similar to yagō, private family names used by commoners in mainland Japan.
Young male members of the samurai class who had no rank were addressed with honorific suffixes: shī (子) for the upper class and nyā (仁屋) for the lower class. Commoners had no rank.
characters, e.g. 朝薫 (Chōkun
). The first character of a nanori, called nanori-gashira (名乗頭), was shared by a lineage or munchū. For example, the character 朝 (chō) was used by branch families of the royal family including Chōkun
(玉城朝薫), his father Chōchi (朝致) and his son Chōki (朝喜).
The direct reference to nanori verbally and in writing was usually avoided because it was considered rude. In domestic documents, a samurai was usually addressed by the combination of a kamei and a rank (e.g. Kyan Pēkumi (喜屋武親雲上)). This was similar to the convention of mainland Japan, e.g. Andō Tsushima-no-kami (安藤対馬守, Andō, Governor of Tsushima Province) for Andō Nobumasa
. This combination can be found in as early as the first half of the 16th century. When necessary, a nanori was attached to the combination of a kamei and a rank. It is a convention of historiography that people of the Ryūkyū Kingdom are referred to by the combination of a kamei and a nanori, e.g. Tamagusuku Chōkun (玉城朝薫).
Nanori came into use during the 17th century with obvious influence from Satsuma. The use of nanori-gashira is similar to that of tsūji (通字) in mainland Japan. However, while tsūji was usually assumed only by the successor of a household, the first son in most cases, each nanori-gashira was shared by all the male member of a lineage.
had the kara-nā Shō Juyū (向受祐). Kara-nā appeared neither officially nor privately in domestic affairs, but were used for diplomatic correspondence with Chinese dynasties
. Thus a lower-class samurai who had no post in the court had virtually no chance to use his kara-nā.
Names for Okinawan officials were recorded in early diplomatic documents written in Classical Chinese. They were actually corrupt forms of warabi-nā and kamei. For example, a-fu-sat-to 阿布薩都 and ō-sat-to 王察度 both referred to the kamei Ufuzatu (大里). Similarly, go-ratsu 呉剌 and tatsu-ro-ka-ne 達魯加禰 derived from warabi-nā Gurā (五良) and Taru-gani (樽金) respectively. It is during the 16th century that some officials used names that could be analyzed as Chinese surnames and given names. It seems that at first these names were coined each time they were needed for a diplomatic trip to China. Some families from which diplomats came for generations began to succeed the first character of their ancestors' transcribed names as sei. For instance, descendants of Mafutu-gani, who appeared as ma-botsu-to (麻勃都) in diplomatic records, adopted the sei Ma (麻) after him.
Among the samurai class, lineages were identified by the combination of the Chinese-style sei and the Japanese-style nanori-gashira. A lineage with the sei Mō (毛) shared the nanori-gashira Sei (盛), but this nanori-gashira was also used by a lineage named Ō (翁). Also, there was another lineage whose sei was Mō, but its nanori-gashira was An (安). It should be noted that kamei cannot be a designator of lineages. The Mō lineage with the nanori-gashira Sei had was headed by the family with the kamei Tomigusuku (豊見城), but its branch families had various kamei including Kunigami (国頭) and Tomikawa (富川).
Close relatives of the king were given the ranks of wōji (王子) and anji (按司). Although wōji literally means the king's son, its conferrers were not limited to the king's son. A wōji or anji was referred to by his domain plus the suffix udun (御殿). The crown prince was given the domain Nakagusuku (中城) and therefore referred to as Nakagusuku-udun (中城御殿).
Many early kings, up to Shō Hō
, had divine names (神号) in addition to warabi-nā. For example, Shō Gen
's divine name was tida-hajimi-aji-sui (日始按司添). It seems that divine names were assumed after accession to the throne.
The king had a kara-nā and used it in diplomatic correspondence with China. The royal sei Shō (尚) was, according to Ryukyuan records, given to Shō Hashi
by China. This statement is highly questionable because no such record is found in Chinese documents and Shō Hashi used the sei even earlier. In 1692, the branch families of the royal house were given the sei Shō (向, note the different kanji) and the nanori-gashira Chō (朝) no matter how distant from the king.
is said to have been founded by immigrants from Fujian, China. Its raison d'être was to manage diplomatic contacts with China although some were later engaged in domestic affairs. The members of the community had kara-nā or Chinese names from the very beginning. It is known that they also had warabi-nā as early as the first half of the 15th century.
Today the members of Kumemura are often known by kara-nā, e.g. Sai On
. He appeared in domestic documents as Gushichan Uwekata after his kamei Gushichan (具志頭) and his rank Uwekata (親方). He had a nanori Bunjaku (文若), and therefore is sometimes known as Gushichan Bunjaku.
by the Meiji
government in 1871, and the Ryūkyū Kingdom was formally annexed by Japan in 1872. Okinawans were then entered into the Japanese family register
(koseki
) system and, as in mainland Japan, surnames were extended to all citizens, no longer being the province of the aristocratic classes alone. A large number of the names created at this time were taken from geographical names or places of residence. Direct descendants of Tamagusuku Chōkun
, who by the time assumed the kamei Hentona (辺土名), adopted Hentona as their new surname.
While the nobles had assumed new names when they reached adulthood, the new system forced them to adopt lifetime personal names soon after birth. At first, Japanese given names were often given when they entered school. For this reason, given names were informally called "school names" (学校名). Warabi-nā continued to be used unofficially until the early Showa period.
With increasing contacts with mainland Japan, many Okinawans felt it inconvenient to use their alien-looking surnames. Since the law made it extremely difficult to change surnames, they often changed the reading of surnames while leaving their written forms unmodified. For example, Miyagusuku (宮城) was usually changed to Miyagi (宮城). It is reported that, during the American military occupation after World War II, many managed to change their surname relatively easily. The family registers were completely destroyed by American attacks and reconstructed on individual declarations.
Family name
A family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...
s (surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
s or last names) first and the given name
Given name
A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
s last. Okinawan family names represent the distinct historical and cultural background of the islands which now comprise Okinawa Prefecture
Okinawa Prefecture
is one of Japan's southern prefectures. It consists of hundreds of the Ryukyu Islands in a chain over long, which extends southwest from Kyūshū to Taiwan. Okinawa's capital, Naha, is located in the southern part of Okinawa Island...
in Japan. Expatriates originally from Okinawa
Okinawa Island
Okinawa Island is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, and is home to Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture. The island has an area of...
also have these names.
Modern names
As Japanese citizens, Okinawans today comply with the Japanese family registerFamily register
A family register is a registry used in many countries to track information of a genealogical or legal interest.Often, official recognition of certain events or status may only be granted when such event or status is registered in the...
(koseki
Koseki
A is a Japanese family registry. Japanese law requires all Japanese households to report births, acknowledgements of paternity, adoptions, disruptions of adoptions, deaths, marriages and divorces of Japanese citizens to their local authority, which compiles such records encompassing all Japanese...
) system. Accordingly, an Okinawan name has only two components, a family name and a given name. A family name is called myōji (苗字 or 名字), uji (氏) or sei (姓), and a given name is called the "name" (名前, namae) or "lower name" (下の名前, shita no namae). The family name precedes the given name. The given name may be referred to as the "lower name" because, in vertically-written Japanese, the given name appears under the family name.
Japanese family names generally show regional variation, but Okinawan family names are known for its distinctiveness. In contrast it becomes increasingly difficult to find unique Okinawan given names.
Top 10 popular Okinawan family names
This top 10 list is based on the name as written in kanjiKanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
(Chinese characters). Since the Japanese language
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
and allows for multiple possible "readings (pronunciations)" for each kanji, the reading of Okinawan family names written with the same characters varies. In addition, the Okinawan language
Okinawan language
Central Okinawan, or simply Okinawan , is a Northern Ryukyuan language spoken primarily in the southern half of the island of Okinawa, as well as in the surrounding islands of Kerama, Kumejima, Tonaki, Aguni, and a number of smaller peripheral islands...
has its own means of reading Japanese kanji.
| Kanji | Readings (Japanese, Okinawan) | Well-known people |
|---|---|---|
| 比嘉 | Higa, Fija, Fiija | 比嘉 栄昇 Eishō Higa (Begin Begin (band) is a Japanese pop group from Ishigaki Island in the Yaeyama Islands of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Their sound contains many elements of traditional Ryukyuan folk music, and prominently features the sanshin.-History:... ), |
| 安室 | Amuro, Amuru | 安室 奈美恵 Namie Amuro Namie Amuro is a Japanese R&B and pop singer, entertainer, and former actress who at the height of her popularity was referred to as the "Teen Queen" and the title "Queen of Japanese Pop Music". Born in Naha, Okinawa, Amuro debuted at the age of 14 as an idol in the girl group Super Monkey's... |
| 金城 | Kaneshiro, Kinjō, Kanagusuku | 金城 武 Takeshi Kaneshiro Takeshi Kaneshiro Takeshi Kaneshiro , born October 11, 1973, is a Taiwan-born Japanese actor and singer.-Name:... , 金城 綾乃 Ayano Kinjō (Kiroro Kiroro is a Japanese musical group from Okinawa that debuted in 1996.-History:Kiroro first debuted in 1996 as an independent band, and later made their major debut in 1998 with the song "". They performed on Kōhaku Uta Gassen in 1998, 1999 and 2001.... ) |
| 大城 | Ōshiro, Ufugusuku | 大城 バネサ Vanesa Oshiro Vanesa Oshiro is a Nikkei enka singer born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She debuted in 2000 at the age of eighteen.- External links :* * at Toshiba EMI... |
| 宮城 | Miyagi, Nāgusuku | ミヤギマモル Mamoru Miyagi |
| 新垣 | Aragaki, Arakaki, Shingaki, Niigaki, Arakachi | 新垣 結衣 Yui Aragaki Yui Aragaki is a Japanese idol, model, actress, singer, seiyū and occasional radio show host of Ryukyuan ancestry.She is particularly recognized for her beauty and her movie projects.- Overview :... , 新垣 里沙 Risa Niigaki Risa Niigaki is a fifth generation member and current leader of the Japanese pop group Morning Musume. She joined Morning Musume in 2001 along with Ai Takahashi, Asami Konno and Makoto Ogawa. She grew up in Yokohama after moving there at age six. As of 2009, she was the longest-serving sub-leader of Morning... (Morning Musume Morning Musume , sometimes referred to as is a Japanese idol girl group, whose act generally revolves around singing and dancing to upbeat melodies. They are the lead group of Hello! Project, which is managed and produced by Tsunku, who composes nearly all the lyrics and melodies of their songs... ) |
| 玉城 | Tamaki, Tamashiro, Tamagusuku | 玉城 幸也 Yukinari Tamaki (Da Pump Da Pump is an Okinawan male idol group comprising lead vocalist, Issa and MCs Ken, Yukinari, and Shinobu. The group formed as students at Okinawa Actors School in 1996... ), 玉城 千春 Chiharu Tamashiro (Kiroro Kiroro is a Japanese musical group from Okinawa that debuted in 1996.-History:Kiroro first debuted in 1996 as an independent band, and later made their major debut in 1998 with the song "". They performed on Kōhaku Uta Gassen in 1998, 1999 and 2001.... ) |
| 上原 | Uehara, Wiibaru | 上原 多香子 Takako Uehara Takako Uehara is a Jpop singer, actress, and former radio host. She is a member of the group Speed. Uehara was born in Okinawa, Japan.Her highly anticipated first solo single 'My First Love' was released in January 1999, and was produced by legendary pop/rock superstar Ryuichi Kawamura ."My First Love" was the... (SPEED Speed (band) Speed is an Okinawan female vocal/dance group comprising Hiroko Shimabukuro, Eriko Imai, Takako Uehara and Hitoe Arakaki. All four members are former students of Okinawa Actors School which also trained popular artists Namie Amuro and MAX.Speed made their major label debut on August 5, 1996 and... ) |
| 島袋 | Shimabukuro, Shimabuku | 島袋 寛子 Hiroko Shimabukuro Hiroko Shimabukuro Hiroko Shimabukuro , best known mononymously as hiro, is a Japanese singer. She debuted as a member of the popular girl group Speed in 1996. In 1998, hiro released her first solo song "Mitsumete Itai" as a B-side to Speed's single "All My True Love"... (SPEED Speed (band) Speed is an Okinawan female vocal/dance group comprising Hiroko Shimabukuro, Eriko Imai, Takako Uehara and Hitoe Arakaki. All four members are former students of Okinawa Actors School which also trained popular artists Namie Amuro and MAX.Speed made their major label debut on August 5, 1996 and... ), Jake Shimabukuro Jake Shimabukuro Jake Shimabukuro is an ukulele virtuoso known for his complex finger work. His music combines elements of jazz and rock.- History :... |
| 平良 | Taira, Teera | 平良 とみ Tomi Taira Tomi Taira ' is a Japanese actress with a long history of performing in Okinawan theatre. She is chiefly active as an actress, narrator, dialect coach and in other capacities in shows and films taking place in Okinawa and in projects otherwise representing the region, as well as working more directly and... |
| 山城 | Yamashiro, Yamagusuku | 山城 智二 Tomoji Yamashiro (FEC) |
Historical names
| Yamatu-nā Japanese (Yamato) style name |
Kara-nā Chinese style name Chinese style name A Chinese style name, sometimes also known as a courtesy name , is a given name to be used later in life. After 20 years of age, the zì is assigned in place of one's given name as a symbol of adulthood and respect... |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| warabi-nā Childhood name |
kamei Family name |
ikai Title/Rank |
nanori Given name |
sei Surname |
imina Given name |
| Umi-gurā |
Tamagusuku |
Uwekata |
Chōkun |
Shō |
Juyū |
As in mainland Japan, historical names in Okinawa are more complicated. People with different social statuses bore different kinds of names, maintain several names to use in different occasions, and sometimes changed them in their lifetime.
Warabi-nā
Warabi-nā (童名) were personal names. For example, the warabi-nā of Tamagusuku ChōkunTamagusuku Chōkun
, also known by the Chinese-style name , was a Ryukyuan aristocrat-bureaucrat credited with the creation of the Ryukyuan dance-drama form known as kumi odori.Tamagusuku was born in what is today the Gibo neighborhood of Shuri...
was Umi-gurā (思五良). Warabi-nā were most prevalent among Okinawans, from the king to commoners, both male and female. They were the oldest component of Okinawan names as, like people in mainland Japan, the inhabitants of Ryukyu islands did not originally have names for families, clans or lineages. They were used as the official names during the early era of the Ryukyu Kingdom. They appeared even in appointment letters by the king, written mostly in hiragana
Hiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
. It was during the 17th century that other name components prevailed among the samurai class.
A warabi-nā was given soon after birth. Although literally meaning childhood name, it was used by commoners for their entire life. While it was overshadowed by other name components, even adult male members of the samurai class used warabi-nā at home and when referring to their friends.
Later in history, stylized use of prefixes and suffixes differentiated social statuses. A commoner used neither a prefix nor suffix, a samurai used either a prefix or suffix, and an aristocrat used both a prefix and a suffix. For example, Tukū (徳) was a name for commoners, Umi-tukū (思徳) for samurai, and Umi-tuku-gani (思徳金) for aristocrats.
A set of warabi-nā appeared in the very beginning of recorded history and has not been changed since then. The number of warabi-nā pooled in society was extremely small. It was not uncommon for a warabi-nā to be shared by more than one person in a household. The first male child was usually named after his paternal grandfather. For example, the last king Shō Tai
Sho Tai
was the last king of the Ryūkyū Kingdom . His reign saw greatly increased interactions with travelers from abroad, particularly from Europe and the United States, as well as the eventual end of the kingdom and its annexation by Japan as Okinawa Prefecture.In 1879, the deposed king was forced to...
had the warabi-nā Umi-jirā-gani (思次良金), which was also the name of his grandfather Shō Kō
Sho Ko
' was a king of the Ryūkyū Kingdom, who held the throne from 1804 to 1828, when he was forced to abdicate in favor of his son, Shō Iku...
.
Kamei
Even in the Old Ryukyu era, social development led Okinawans to acquire names other than warabi-nā for disambiguation. Kamei (家名) or Yā-n-nā (家の名), both meaning "family name," were often attached to warabi-nā. Kamei were toponyms, either the domains they ruled or the places of their origin. For example, an inscription of the Old Ryukyu era contains a personal name, Mafuto-kane Ufusato no Ufu-yakumoi (まふとかね 大さとの大やくもい), where Mafuto-kane (Mafutu-gani) was a warabi-nā, Ufusato (Ufusatu) was a place associated with him, and Ufu-yakumoi (Ufu-yakumui) was the title he was given.In the naming conventions after the separation of the samurai class from peasants, only the samurai class was allowed to have kamei. Because the vast majority of the samurai families lacked domains to rule, they inherited fixed kamei. In contrast, an upper class member used the name of the fief he was given by the king. This means that his kamei was changed every time a different land was allotted. For example, Makishi Chōchū (1818–1862) originally had the kamei Itarashiki (板良敷) but was then given a fief of Ōwan (大湾) before being finally renamed to Makishi (牧志).
In early times, kamei were written predominantly in hiragana. After the conquest of the Ryūkyū Kingdom by Japan's Satsuma Domain in 1609, the Japanese-style use of Chinese characters (kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
) was adopted. The Keichō Land Surveys of 1609-1611 probably conventionalized to some degree the choice of kanji for place names, and thus surnames based on them. In 1625 the Satsuma Domain instituted a . As a result, the kanji used to write kamei changed from characters that were common in mainland Japan to new, unique character combinations. For example, the name 東 (Higashi) was often changed to 比嘉 (Higa) or 比謝 (Hija), the name 前田 (Maeda) to 真栄田 (the same reading), 福山 (Fukuyama) to 譜久山 (the same reading), etc.
In practice, kamei represented a group who shared the founder of a relatively recent past. When it was necessary to distinguish branch families, the main family attached the prefix ufu (大, great) to its kamei while the suffix gwa (small), for example, was used for a branch family.
Officially, commoners did not have kamei. At some point in history, commoners in the capital region, Shuri
Shuri
Shuri may refer to:* Shuri, Bhutan* Shuri, Okinawa - former capital of the Ryūkyū Kingdom.* Shuri Kondo...
and Naha, started to assume kamei. However, kamei of commoners were differentiated verbally and in writing. The last syllable of a commoner's kamei was lengthened (e.g. Arakachī) while that of a samurai was not (e.g. Arakachi). For commoners, his warabi-nā is written first and is followed by his kamei. For example, Tarā (warabi-nā) from Yamagusiku was written as たら山城 (Tarā Yamagushiku).
Commoners in rural areas unofficially used names for households, which were also called Yā-n-nā (屋の名). They were similar to yagō, private family names used by commoners in mainland Japan.
Rank
Like in mainland Japan, a rank (位階) was also part of the addressing system. The following was the list of ranks after they were fixed:- Wōji (王子)
- Anji or Aji (按司)
- Uwekata (親方)
- Pēkumi (親雲上)
- Satunushi-pēchin (里之子親雲上)
- Satunushi (里之子)
- Chukudun-pēchin (筑登之親雲上)
- Chukudun (筑登之)
Young male members of the samurai class who had no rank were addressed with honorific suffixes: shī (子) for the upper class and nyā (仁屋) for the lower class. Commoners had no rank.
Nanori
Male members of the samurai class adopted nanori (名乗), or Japanese-style personal names, when they reached adulthood. Each nanori consists of two kanjiKanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
characters, e.g. 朝薫 (Chōkun
Tamagusuku Chōkun
, also known by the Chinese-style name , was a Ryukyuan aristocrat-bureaucrat credited with the creation of the Ryukyuan dance-drama form known as kumi odori.Tamagusuku was born in what is today the Gibo neighborhood of Shuri...
). The first character of a nanori, called nanori-gashira (名乗頭), was shared by a lineage or munchū. For example, the character 朝 (chō) was used by branch families of the royal family including Chōkun
Tamagusuku Chōkun
, also known by the Chinese-style name , was a Ryukyuan aristocrat-bureaucrat credited with the creation of the Ryukyuan dance-drama form known as kumi odori.Tamagusuku was born in what is today the Gibo neighborhood of Shuri...
(玉城朝薫), his father Chōchi (朝致) and his son Chōki (朝喜).
The direct reference to nanori verbally and in writing was usually avoided because it was considered rude. In domestic documents, a samurai was usually addressed by the combination of a kamei and a rank (e.g. Kyan Pēkumi (喜屋武親雲上)). This was similar to the convention of mainland Japan, e.g. Andō Tsushima-no-kami (安藤対馬守, Andō, Governor of Tsushima Province) for Andō Nobumasa
Ando Nobumasa
was a Japanese daimyo of the late Edo period, who ruled the Iwakidaira Domain. He was a rōjū in the Tokugawa shogunate, and was active in the wake of Ii Naosuke's assassination...
. This combination can be found in as early as the first half of the 16th century. When necessary, a nanori was attached to the combination of a kamei and a rank. It is a convention of historiography that people of the Ryūkyū Kingdom are referred to by the combination of a kamei and a nanori, e.g. Tamagusuku Chōkun (玉城朝薫).
Nanori came into use during the 17th century with obvious influence from Satsuma. The use of nanori-gashira is similar to that of tsūji (通字) in mainland Japan. However, while tsūji was usually assumed only by the successor of a household, the first son in most cases, each nanori-gashira was shared by all the male member of a lineage.
Kara-nā
From 1689 male members of the samurai class also had kara-nā (唐名) or Chinese-style names. Each kara-nā consists of a one-character name for a lineage called sei or uji (姓 or 氏) and a personal name called imina (諱). For example, Tamagusuku ChōkunTamagusuku Chōkun
, also known by the Chinese-style name , was a Ryukyuan aristocrat-bureaucrat credited with the creation of the Ryukyuan dance-drama form known as kumi odori.Tamagusuku was born in what is today the Gibo neighborhood of Shuri...
had the kara-nā Shō Juyū (向受祐). Kara-nā appeared neither officially nor privately in domestic affairs, but were used for diplomatic correspondence with Chinese dynasties
Dynasties in Chinese history
The following is a chronology of the dynasties in Chinese history.Chinese history is not as neat as is often described and it was rare for one dynasty to change peacefully into the next. Dynasties were often established before the overthrow of an existing regime, or continued for a time after they...
. Thus a lower-class samurai who had no post in the court had virtually no chance to use his kara-nā.
Names for Okinawan officials were recorded in early diplomatic documents written in Classical Chinese. They were actually corrupt forms of warabi-nā and kamei. For example, a-fu-sat-to 阿布薩都 and ō-sat-to 王察度 both referred to the kamei Ufuzatu (大里). Similarly, go-ratsu 呉剌 and tatsu-ro-ka-ne 達魯加禰 derived from warabi-nā Gurā (五良) and Taru-gani (樽金) respectively. It is during the 16th century that some officials used names that could be analyzed as Chinese surnames and given names. It seems that at first these names were coined each time they were needed for a diplomatic trip to China. Some families from which diplomats came for generations began to succeed the first character of their ancestors' transcribed names as sei. For instance, descendants of Mafutu-gani, who appeared as ma-botsu-to (麻勃都) in diplomatic records, adopted the sei Ma (麻) after him.
Munchū or lineages
The development of Okinawan naming conventions was closely related with that of munchū (門中), or patrilineages. In 1689 Keizu-za or the Board of Genealogies (系図座) was established and all the samurai lineages were ordered to compile genealogical records. In 1690 the royal court assigned one-character sei or Chinese surnames to all registered lineages. Since commoners were forbidden to compile genealogical records, this effectively separated the samurai class from commoners. Genealogical records became a status symbol of the samurai class. The samurai class came to be referred to as keimochi (系持), lit. possessing genealogy, while commoners were called mukei (無系), lit. without genealogy.Among the samurai class, lineages were identified by the combination of the Chinese-style sei and the Japanese-style nanori-gashira. A lineage with the sei Mō (毛) shared the nanori-gashira Sei (盛), but this nanori-gashira was also used by a lineage named Ō (翁). Also, there was another lineage whose sei was Mō, but its nanori-gashira was An (安). It should be noted that kamei cannot be a designator of lineages. The Mō lineage with the nanori-gashira Sei had was headed by the family with the kamei Tomigusuku (豊見城), but its branch families had various kamei including Kunigami (国頭) and Tomikawa (富川).
Royal house
The title Ō (王) or king was of foreign origin. In Okinawan, the king styled himself anji-osoi-ganashi or later Shui-tin-ganashi. The king was referred to as ushu-ganashi-me by his people and as myūmē-ganashi or nūmē-ganshi by his family members.Close relatives of the king were given the ranks of wōji (王子) and anji (按司). Although wōji literally means the king's son, its conferrers were not limited to the king's son. A wōji or anji was referred to by his domain plus the suffix udun (御殿). The crown prince was given the domain Nakagusuku (中城) and therefore referred to as Nakagusuku-udun (中城御殿).
Many early kings, up to Shō Hō
Sho Ho
', also known as Shengfeng, was a king of the Ryūkyū Kingdom. He succeeded Shō Nei, whose reign saw the invasion of Ryūkyū by Japanese forces in 1609 and the subjugation of the kingdom to Satsuma Domain, and ruled from 1621 until 1640....
, had divine names (神号) in addition to warabi-nā. For example, Shō Gen
Sho Gen
Shō Gen was king of the Ryūkyū Kingdom from 1556 to 1572. He was called "Gen, the mute." the king required considerable support from the Sanshikan , the chief council of royal advisors...
's divine name was tida-hajimi-aji-sui (日始按司添). It seems that divine names were assumed after accession to the throne.
The king had a kara-nā and used it in diplomatic correspondence with China. The royal sei Shō (尚) was, according to Ryukyuan records, given to Shō Hashi
Sho Hashi
Shō Hashi was the first king of the Ryūkyū Kingdom , uniting the three kingdoms of Chūzan, Hokuzan, and Nanzan by conquest...
by China. This statement is highly questionable because no such record is found in Chinese documents and Shō Hashi used the sei even earlier. In 1692, the branch families of the royal house were given the sei Shō (向, note the different kanji) and the nanori-gashira Chō (朝) no matter how distant from the king.
Kumemura samurai
A district near the capital named KumemuraKumemura
Kumemura , located on Okinawa, in the port city of Naha and near the royal capital of Shuri, was a community of scholars, bureaucrats, and diplomats, and a center of culture and learning during the time of the Ryūkyū Kingdom...
is said to have been founded by immigrants from Fujian, China. Its raison d'être was to manage diplomatic contacts with China although some were later engaged in domestic affairs. The members of the community had kara-nā or Chinese names from the very beginning. It is known that they also had warabi-nā as early as the first half of the 15th century.
Today the members of Kumemura are often known by kara-nā, e.g. Sai On
Sai On
', also known as ' was a scholar-bureaucrat official of the Ryūkyū Kingdom, serving as regent, instructor, and advisor to King Shō Kei...
. He appeared in domestic documents as Gushichan Uwekata after his kamei Gushichan (具志頭) and his rank Uwekata (親方). He had a nanori Bunjaku (文若), and therefore is sometimes known as Gushichan Bunjaku.
Modernization
The Japanese system of feudal domains (han) was abolishedAbolition of the han system
The was an act, in 1871, of the new Meiji government of the Empire of Japan to replace the traditional feudal domain system and to introduce centralized government authority . This process marked the culmination of the Meiji Restoration in that all daimyo were required to return their authority...
by the Meiji
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
government in 1871, and the Ryūkyū Kingdom was formally annexed by Japan in 1872. Okinawans were then entered into the Japanese family register
Family register
A family register is a registry used in many countries to track information of a genealogical or legal interest.Often, official recognition of certain events or status may only be granted when such event or status is registered in the...
(koseki
Koseki
A is a Japanese family registry. Japanese law requires all Japanese households to report births, acknowledgements of paternity, adoptions, disruptions of adoptions, deaths, marriages and divorces of Japanese citizens to their local authority, which compiles such records encompassing all Japanese...
) system and, as in mainland Japan, surnames were extended to all citizens, no longer being the province of the aristocratic classes alone. A large number of the names created at this time were taken from geographical names or places of residence. Direct descendants of Tamagusuku Chōkun
Tamagusuku Chōkun
, also known by the Chinese-style name , was a Ryukyuan aristocrat-bureaucrat credited with the creation of the Ryukyuan dance-drama form known as kumi odori.Tamagusuku was born in what is today the Gibo neighborhood of Shuri...
, who by the time assumed the kamei Hentona (辺土名), adopted Hentona as their new surname.
While the nobles had assumed new names when they reached adulthood, the new system forced them to adopt lifetime personal names soon after birth. At first, Japanese given names were often given when they entered school. For this reason, given names were informally called "school names" (学校名). Warabi-nā continued to be used unofficially until the early Showa period.
With increasing contacts with mainland Japan, many Okinawans felt it inconvenient to use their alien-looking surnames. Since the law made it extremely difficult to change surnames, they often changed the reading of surnames while leaving their written forms unmodified. For example, Miyagusuku (宮城) was usually changed to Miyagi (宮城). It is reported that, during the American military occupation after World War II, many managed to change their surname relatively easily. The family registers were completely destroyed by American attacks and reconstructed on individual declarations.
See also
- Japanese nameJapanese namein modern times usually consist of a family name , followed by a given name. "Middle names" are not generally used.Japanese names are usually written in kanji, which are characters of usually Chinese origin in Japanese pronunciation...
- Okinawa PrefectureOkinawa Prefectureis one of Japan's southern prefectures. It consists of hundreds of the Ryukyu Islands in a chain over long, which extends southwest from Kyūshū to Taiwan. Okinawa's capital, Naha, is located in the southern part of Okinawa Island...