In ancient times, only the nobles in Japan were famous for their surnames, and their so-called surnames were different from what we understood.
At the end of the 4th century AD, the Japanese Yamato court unified many small countries in the southern part of the Japanese archipelago into one country, and its political rule was based on the surname system. A group headed by the great monarch (later emperor) of the Yamato court, which controls the central government and establishes blood relations with the kings of small countries affiliated to the court, is called "history", and a "history" is also an aristocratic family.
Some surnames come from official positions, some from place names of residence and ruling places, some from god names, and some from skills. For example, those who live in Izumo country are called "Izumo family" and those who do sacrificial work are called "taboo family". The Wang family, who held the supreme power of the Yamato court, was the most powerful family at that time.
Later, the Wang family gave many families belonging to the imperial court "surnames" according to their closeness, blood relationship and contribution. This "surname" is not a real surname, but it is a title of status, family status and position, similar to a title. At that time, there were about 30 surnames, among which "Sean", "Jun" and "Zhi" were the most powerful surnames for the royal family and prominent nobles.
Due to population growth, a big family has many branches. These branches gave themselves a word seedling. "Miao character" means bud branch, which is a branch from one's own home. For example, Fujiwara is a big family. After the split, Fujiwara, who lived near Jiangguo, took the initials of "near Jiangguo" and "Fujiwara" and called it "Kondo". Fujiwara, who lives in Yi Shi, Yuanjiang and Kaga, is called Ito, Endo and Kato. In the eighth year of Meiji, people who had never had a surname wanted to touch the word "Fujita" when taking their own surname, so Fujita, Fujimoto, Fujii, Fujiyama, Fujikawa and Fujita were born.
So at this time, the surname can represent a part of the family blood relationship, but the surname only represents the family status, and the Miao word represents a new branch, but at this time, the surname, surname and Miao word are only available to nobles.
By the middle of the seventh century, during the period of Dahua innovation, hereditary titles were abolished, which meant that surnames were meaningless, surnames and surnames were confused, and some of them became surnames that have been passed down to this day. At this time, surnames are still exclusive to nobles. In the19th century, surnames were limited to warriors, tycoons and powerful people in the village. These people apply to the authorities and get special permission to have surnames. It is a great honor to "bring a knife and a name". The so-called "sword" means having a surname, and ordinary people only have a first name and no surname.
During the reign of Emperor Meiji, the government felt that it was inconvenient to have no surname, fabricate household registration and collect taxes, and called on everyone to take surnames. However, due to people's long-standing habits, no one wants to use surnames. At this time, the government had to issue an order that "all citizens must have their surnames". At this time, people are eager to find surnames, and there is a craze for taking surnames all over the country. The one who lives in Aoki Village is called Aoki, the one who lives by the bridge is called Da Qiao, and the one who grows pine trees at home is called Matsushita. If there is a mountain in front of the door, it is called a mountain pass. So Tanaka, Miki, Yamada, Sunshine, North Wind, Front, Above and Guanyin, surnames that China people find strange, suddenly burst out.
There are Ueno, Tanaka, Hanoi, Shangyuan, Shiyuan, Lu Qian, Otomiya, Yoshiokaya, Sanhewu, and Pangwu whose surnames are place names, and Yummy, Yummy and the prostitute man whose surnames are occupations. Some people also use the names of ancient warriors as surnames, such as Sakai, Bendo and Shangshan, all of which are the names of ancient warriors. Some people are afraid of being punished by the government, "don't choose their surnames" and take fish, vegetables, temples and occupations as surnames. Suzuki was originally a symbol held by a god official and became a surname. A little culture chooses good words such as longevity, longevity, Millennium, loose bamboo and Asahi as surnames. Longevity symbols such as pine, crane and tortoise have also become surnames, as have hundreds, thousands and thousands. Some people really can't think of a good way, so they have to deal with one casually. My grandson, pig hand, dog, ghost head and eggplant Sichuan are all here, and some let officials take out one at will.
1898, the government promulgated the household registration law, so that every family name is fixed and cannot be changed at will. Because Japanese surnames come suddenly and specially, their connotations are different. Most surnames in the world are related by blood, but Japanese surnames rarely have this meaning. Those with surnames are not necessarily related by blood, and those without surnames may be uncles and nephews.
Most Japanese surnames consist of two Chinese characters, one to nine at most. Such as Beichi, Haian, Tanaka, Suzuki, Utsunomiya, saionji, Ogawara and Kadoorie. Therefore, in order to distinguish which is the surname and which is the first name, a word should be left between the surname and the first name on the occasion of formal signature. For example, Kiyoshi Inoue should be written as "Kiyoshi Inoue", "Third-order Golden Soup", "Yagi Xiahong" and "Yagi Xiahong".
It is said that there are hundreds of thousands of surnames in Japan, and the population of Japan is only over 100 million, with an average of only a few hundred surnames. There are more than 40 most common ones, among which Suzuki, Sato, Tanaka, Yamamoto, Watanabe, Gao Qiao, Kobayashi, Nakamura, Ito and Saito account for 10% of the total population, exceeding 100000.
There are so many surnames in Japan, but the emperor has no surnames. Emperor Akihito and Emperor Hirohito can't say their surnames. The Japanese believe that the emperor is not a person, but a god, and God has no surname. The emperor has no surname, and neither does the prince, grandson, daughter, brother or aunt. Generally, women will change their husband's surname after marriage, but civilians still use their maiden name when they marry the royal family. Wen Ren's wife Chuan Dao Kiko's surname is Chuan Dao, which is her maiden name.
Japanese people have strange surnames and names. Japanese men's names often end with words such as lang, husband, male and male. To show their strength, handsome and loyalty. Moreover, there are many signs of ranking. The eldest son is called Taro, the second son is called Jiro and Jiro, and the one ranked 1 1 is Yoichiro. Someone directly removed the word "Lang", meaning that "Tai", "Yi", "Di" and "Zhi" are two, "Xuan" and "Zang" are three, and "Fu" is the youngest son. The eldest daughter is called the eldest son, the second daughter is called neutron and the third daughter is called the third son. Kobayashi Hiroichi must be the eldest son, and Tiger Jiro must be the second. In the past, Japanese men's names were often added with "Bing Wei", "Saemon" and "Saemon", all of which were changed from military posts, and some were used to show the spirit of martial arts.
Most Japanese women's names end with "Zi", "Jiang", "Dai" and "Zhi", such as Kawashima Yoshiko, Daguan Xingjiang, Chiyoyo Zhiye and Ohara Fujitsu, which sounds elegant and soft. Now about 90% of young women are named after "Zi". It is a custom for a woman to change her husband's surname after marriage. After Ryoko Nakano married Kawasaki Yamahiro, he was renamed Kawasaki Yoshiko; Song dynasty, after marriage, changed its name to chestnut. Now, more and more women are opposed to the husband and wife sharing the same surname, and they have also set up a "rally against the husband and wife sharing the same surname", arguing that they should still use their own surnames after marriage.
Using numbers in names is another feature of Japanese names. There are people who blindly call Yi Dan, Er Jing, Miki and Si Dao; There are people named six, seven, eight horses, nine ghosts and ten stones; There are people named 45, Isuzu, 100 yuan, 600 fields and 1000 households; There are even people named EMI and Long Live. It is common to use numbers in names to indicate rankings, but some also indicate the time of birth. Isoroku Yamamoto, for example, was born at the age of 56.
Japan is a country that pays attention to etiquette. In the past, a naming ceremony was held when a child was born, which was stipulated to be held within 14 days after the child was born, usually the seventh day. The Japanese call this day "Seven Nights of the Emperor", which is an auspicious day for naming. On the night of naming, the family held a banquet to celebrate.
Japanese children can call their parents by their first names in front of outsiders, which is not allowed in most countries.
Japanese people have many strange names. Japanese names are usually written with surnames first, but when translated into western languages, they are often changed to surnames first and spelled in Roman characters according to the original Japanese pronunciation. Since 195 1, the Japanese government proposed to restrict the use of uncommon characters in personal names, there are more and more people with the same surname in Japan, so some people advocate using "pseudonyms" instead of Chinese characters.
Japanese surnames are not only numerous, but also complicated in pronunciation and Chinese characters. There are several or even a dozen Chinese characters in homophone surnames, and the same Chinese character will have several pronunciations. For example, ささき can be pronounced as the following surnames-Sasaki, Sasaki, Sasaki, Sasaki, Mausoleum, Que and so on. The Japanese surnamed ことぅ can write the following in Chinese characters: Goto, Goto, Goto, Wu Tong, Wu Tong, Jiangteng, Tauren, Wudao, Kindness and so on.
Japanese surnames are so complicated that I don't even know how to pronounce them myself, and I don't know how to write Chinese characters when I hear names. A survey shows that the number of business cards exchanged in Japan is as high as 4 million a day, which means that 23 1 group people exchange business cards every second. But in Japan, it is very impolite to call each other by the wrong name. In order to avoid mistakes, most Japanese people use pseudonyms to express Japanese pronunciation next to their names written in Chinese characters.
Japanese people are also used to calling by their surnames instead of their first names. If someone goes to find a man named Sato, there will probably be several Satos who will agree together. There is a joke: If grenades are thrown at crowded people during the rush hour in Japan, 10 people will be killed, and 9 of them are called Sato.