Page:Things Japanese (1905).djvu/357

 name, besides nicknames, pseudonyms, and even posthumous names. The subject is a labyrinth. We merely sketch out the following as a clue to guide the student in threading his way through it. He will find, then, that there are:—

1. The kabane or sei, a very ancient and aristocratic sort of family name, but now so widely diffused as to include several surnames in the narrower sense of the word. The grand old names of Minamoto, Fujiwara, Tachibana, are kabane.

2. The uji or myōji, our surname, and dating like it only from mediæval times. Most names of this class were originally nothing more than the names of the localities in which the families bearing them resided, as Yama-moto, "foot of the mountain;" Ta-naka, "among the rice-fields;" Matsu-mura, "pine-tree village." Down to about 1870, surnames were borne only by persons of gentle birth, common folks being allowed but No. 3, much as in Europe during the middle ages.

3. The zokumyō or tsūshō, literally, "common name." It corresponds pretty closely to our Christian name. Very often such names end in tarō for an eldest son, in jirō for a second, in saburō for a third, and so on down jurō for a tenth son, as Gentarō, Tsunajirō, etc.; or else these distinctive terminations are used alone without any prefix. They mean respectively big male," "second male," "third male," and so on. Other zokumyō, end in emon, suke, nojō, bei,—words fomerly serving to designate certain official posts, but now quite obsolete in their original acceptation.

4. The nanori or jitsumyō, that is, "true name," also corresponding to our Christian name. Examples of it are Masashige, Yoshisada, Tamotsu, Takashi Until recently, the jitsumyō had a certain importance attached to it and a mystery enshrouding it. It was used only on solemn occasions, especially in combination with the kabane, as Fujiwara no Yorilsugu (no="of"). Since the revolution of 1868, there has been a tendency to let No. 1 retreat into the background, to make No. 2 equivalent to the European surname, and to assimilate Nos. 3 and 4, both being