Brothers' Names


* Brothers' Names (Denise O'Brien, Matthew Stavros, David Pollack, Karl Friday, Barbara Nostrand, Peter Shapinsky, William Bodiford, Bernhard Scheid, Richard Bowring)


Total number of messages: 11

Discussion in progress. As of Wed, Jun 8, 2005.

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From:   Denise O'Brien

Subject: [pmjs] Brothers' Names (Heian)

Date: June 5, 2005 21:47:41 GMT+09:00


           Is there any significance to the pattern apparent among some mid-Heian male sibling sets of shared syllables/characters in adult personal names?   For example, Fujiwara Kaneie's sons all had names beginning with Michi- (Michitaka, Michitsuna, Michiyoshi, Michikane, and Michinaga), and all of Prince Tamehira's six sons had adult names ending in -sada.   This was not an absolute rule, however, as there are families like Fujiwara Michitaka's in which most but not all of his eight sons carried the syllables chika somewhere in their adult names, as in Korechika and Chikaie.  Adherence or nonadherence to this pattern does not seem to be correlated with the identity or status of the son's mother.

                          Denise O'Brien


Denise O'Brien, Ph.D.

Department of Anthropology

Temple University

Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA

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From:  Matthew Stavros

Date: June 6, 2005 1:05:29 GMT+09:00


By no means is this phenomenon limited to mid-Heian. I find it frequently in documents dating from the 14th through the 16th centuries. I would be inclined to guess that it's more common to find the sharing of a character than not among elite families. In fact, I've found that when documents only include the personal name of a person it's often possible to track down the family name in Kugyou-bunin or elsewhere based on the common use of a similar character in the personal name.


Examples:

Saionji family insists on sons having the character for Ouyake in their names, read "kin."

The Ashikaga shoguns consistently use "Yoshi."

And on and on.


I always assumed it was a convention akin to Western use of consecutive suffixes: "the 3rd," "Jr." etc. but would be thrilled to learn that there's a more profound history behind it.


Matthew Stavros

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From:   David Pollack 

Date: June 6, 2005 4:12:35 GMT+09:00


I don't know how far back the common Chinese/Korean practice of "generation names" or banci can be traced (see the info below). Its apparent use in Japan might have gone along with the familiar sinicizing practice that often turned Sugawara, for example, into just its first character "Kan" (as in Kanke), no doubt for the classy continental cachet of a "Chinese" ("Korean"?) name.


David Pollack


http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Generation-name


Generation name is half of the two-Chinese character given name given to newborns in the same generation of one surname lineage.  [...] 

The common generation character may be either the first (more common) or second one of the two-character name, but it is in the same position for everyone who shares it. For some families, the position switches from generation to generation, so that one generation will share the same first character in the given name, while the next will share the same second character.

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From:  Karl Friday 

Date: June 6, 2005 6:19:14 GMT+09:00


This pattern was common enough to be called standard practice

among kuge houses during the Heian period, and most warrior

houses from the Heian period onward.  Each house appears to

have circulated a fairly small set of characters in varying

combinations, generation after generation, with the usual

practice being that sons received one character from their

father's name and one of the other characters from the "house

set."  Thus the vast majority of the scions of the Kammu

Heishi carried personal names composed from some combination

of mori, tada, kiyo, tsune, masa, tou, and a handful of other

characters; while the Seiwa Genji endlessly recycled

combinations of yori, yoshi, chika, tomo, tsune, ie, naka,

nobu and a few others.  Medieval bushi houses that claimed

descent from one of these houses (or other illustrious warrior

houses, like the Hidesato-ryu Fujiwara) continued this

practice--perhaps as a conscious reminder to whomever of their

pedigree.


Karl Friday

Dept. of History

University of Georgia

706-542-2537

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From:  Barbara Nostrand

Subject:  [pmjs]  Re: Brothers' Names (Heian)


There is a well known pattern of a shared kanji which can be found in any position in the nanori and which typically descends for several generations. This shared kanji business is sufficiently common that there is a technical term for it. If I call correctly, they are called "tsuuji". You will notice this practice in the personal name of the emperor. I think that this is basically a kinship thing.


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From:   Peter Shapinsky 

Subject:  [pmjs]  Re: Brothers' Names (Heian)


Dear Denise,


Genealogies sometimes record information on the significance of a character used by a particular family.  Use of such characters may have had symbolic importance for a particular family.  For example, in the Sengoku-period genealogy of the Kono family of Iyo in Shikoku entitled Yoshoki, the Kono family took as a tradition that it used the tsu () character read 'michi' in memory of an affair that a Kono daughter conducted one night with her family's ujigami (an event recorded as mittsû) so as to ensure that the Kono line might not fail.  In addition, these name-characters were markers of status that might be given from lords to retainers to use.


Peter Shapinsky

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From: William Bodiford

Subject: [pmjs]  Re: Brothers' Names (Heian)

Date:  June 7, 2005 12:24:21 GMT+09:00


RE:  "Generational Names"


        I thank David Pollack for the link.


<http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Generation-name>


        In Buddhist contexts, it can be referred to either as a relation glyph (keiji 系字) or as a shared glyph (tsuuji 通字).  These two terms might or might not refer to an identical referent.  A relation glyph is used within a lineage to indicate membership in the same branch line (across different generations) or to indicate shared seniority (when shared by members of the same generation).  If the same relation glyph is used for more than one member of the lineage, then it becomes a shared glyph.  Tamamura Takeiji has published lineage charts for Japanese Gozan Zen monks that will, in some cases, allow lineage affiliation to be identified based on priestly names alone.


        I would be interested in knowing if any one has published studies of this phenomena within Japanese secular contexts.


William M. Bodiford (bodiford@ucla.edu)

Dept. of Asian Languages and Cultures

University of California (UCLA)

Los Angeles  CA  90095--9515

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From: Bernhard Scheid

Subject:   [pmjs]  Re: Brothers' Names (Heian)

Date: June 7, 2005 18:48:18 GMT+09:00


Among the kuge families one of the most consistent examples are the Urabe who always would bear "kane" in their names. Among the heads of the families (and most of their brothers) this practice ranges without interruption from Urabe Kanenobu (10th cent.) to Yoshida (Urabe) Kaneo (1705 - 1787).


Some family documents hint at the fact that this naming practice was tied to the Urabe's profession as diviners, but obviously also members who did not carry out this family business recieved the "kane" as well. As for instance Urabe Kaneyoshi, better known as Yoshida Kenko.


It was always my impression that bearing only one "name marker" was typical for lesser kuge families specialising in a certain profession like dancing, kemari, etc., while more powerful families had more kanji in their "possession", as explained by Karl Friday.


However, this is based only on personal observations and I would also be interested to learn more about the subject.


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From: Bernhard Scheid

Subject:   [pmjs]  Re: Brothers' Names (Heian)

Date: June 7, 2005 19:13:08 GMT+09:00


Dear William, dear David Pollack


perhaps you did not notice that the links mentioned in your mails are

actually clones from Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org), as indicated most

descretely in the footer of the "nationmaster" page. Even so it might be

preferable to refer to the original.


The only disadvantage of the original site is that due to its popularity

it is often quite slow...


Best regards


Bernhard Scheid


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From: Richard Bowring

Subject:   [pmjs]  Re: Brothers' Names (Heian)

Date: June 8, 2005 0:56:22 GMT+09:00


Lots of interesting bits of information here but it seems to me that the central question has not really been dealt with yet. Why would one or two offspring in a family be left out of the pattern? I, too, would have assumed it was to do with the mother, but it seems not.

Richard Bowring

Cambridge

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From: Barbara Nostrand

Subject:   [pmjs]  Re: Brothers' Names (Heian)

Date: June 8, 2005 5:06:43 GMT+09:00


The question is of course complicated by the propensity for Japanese to change names during their lifetimes. If you look at geneology charts you will a see a tsuuji in use for several generations only to be replaced by another tsuuji. This may be associated with house splitting, but I don't know of anyone who has made a detailed study of the phenomenon. Another possibility is that the tsuuji were changed for the same sort of reason that nengo were changed. To bring about improved fortune.


                    Barbara Nostrand


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