How did the more than 100,000 surnames in Japan come about? What is the origin?

When Japan was hit by Western industrial civilization, the Japanese emperor began to vigorously reform, requiring every Japanese citizen to have their own surname, and these people began to name themselves by the place where they lived due to their low level of education, which led to a variety of surnames, accumulating as many as 100,000.

Japan has been keen to learn Chinese culture since ancient times, but it is very respectable that when Japan absorbs Chinese and even Western culture, it can vigorously learn from other people's cultures while ensuring its own cultural independence. Japan once sent envoys to China during the Eastern Han Dynasty, and when Japanese envoys came to China, they found that the country was strong and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, so they admired China very much. After returning to Japan, he immediately informed the king of Japan of the news, and the king of Japan was also shrewd, and immediately sent learners to China to study culture, and this situation continued until the Tang Dynasty and was particularly prosperous, because of the Taizong period of the Tang Dynasty, the economy and culture and politics were at a very developed level, and even many foreigners were willing to settle in China.

At this time, Japan sent more scholars to China to study than before, and frantically absorbed China's excellent culture, and they even copied it directly to their own country without processing, and the Chinese surname culture was also transmitted to Japan.

In the beginning, not everyone in Japan could have a surname, and generally only nobles were eligible to have a surname. In ancient Japan, there were also hierarchies, like Japanese civilians were people without names, so because there were many Japanese nobles before, but there were only a few surnames, it led to a high rate of duplicate names, until later Japan began to learn Chinese surname culture, and began to have a certain improvement.

Later, Japan was affected by Western culture, and the Meiji Emperor immediately began to order reforms, learning from the advanced culture of the West, and the history called this study the Meiji Restoration, one of the reform measures was about Japanese surnames, so the Japanese emperor ordered every Japanese citizen to have their own surname, which made those people at the bottom of the society suffer. Because of their own low level of education, there is no way to take a surname at will, so they directly use their place name as a surname, for example, if you live near the river, you will be called a window, if you live near a mountain, if you live near a well, you will call yourself a well. As a result, there are many different surnames in Japan, resulting in almost 100,000 surnames now.

As a result of the Emperor's reforms, everyone was required to take their own surname. There is also a Japanese surname, which is also influenced by ancient Chinese culture, so their surname also bears the shadow of Chinese culture.

Japan is the country with the most surnames in the world, and during the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese did not have sex, and later the emperor asked everyone to give themselves a name, and when people chose a name, they could choose from any text, because each person's surname has a meaning, representing their occupation or place of residence or faith, so there are many surnames.

During the Meiji Restoration, there was a surname reform measure in Japan, which required every Japanese citizen to have a surname, so people simply used their place names and occupations as surnames, which was increased.

Ayase, Sawajiri, Eikura, Kato, Miyazaki, Kazama, Toda, Yamaguchi, Ikawa, Fukada, Yonekura, Sato, Koike, Ueno, Ito, Sudo, Nagase.

Double, Kishitani, Akasaka, Nakamura, Aiba, Imai, Kurokawa, Ito, Igarashi, Okada, Noji, Shimatani, Tsutsumi, Kase, Yoshida, Kanzuki, Fukatsu.

Kumozuka, Yakusho, Yamada, Fukiishi, Yoshioka, Uchida, Abe, Yoshizawa, Matsuda, Hasegawa, Kuninaka, Kamikawa, Kitamura, Hosei, Kyono, Amami, Nakayama.

Nakatani, Kagawa, Yoshinaga, Okamoto, Sotake, Mukai, Inamori, Narumi, Ichikawa, Tamayama, Kameri, Matsushita, Takahashi, Nakayo, Inoue, Yoshikawa, Tezuka.

Tomosaka, Miyazawa, Sakurai, Ohno, Tabe Mi, Ueto, Hiraoka, Nose, Tekoshi, Utada, Kuraki, Amuro, Miki, Ono, Nakajima, Takenaka.

The ** of Japanese surnames has a reason for living, from the sun, moon and stars down to flowers, birds, fish and insects, from professional residence to religious beliefs, almost all of them can be surnamed, such as Takasaki, which means a prominent part of the island.

The main garden is the square in front of the palace, the white bird and bear are animals, Wakamatsu and Takasugi are plants, Takahashi and Uju represent buildings, and Onodera and Saionji indicate religious beliefs.

There are more than 40 of the most common surnames, among which the ten surnames of Suzuki, Sato, Tanaka, Yamamoto, Watanabe, Takahashi, Kobayashi, Nakamura, Ito, and Saito account for 10% of the total population, with more than 10 million.

The largest surname in Japan is Sato

It is said that he is a descendant of the Bishan people who served as a captain of the Saemon in Fujiwara Hidego (that is, the Fujiwara family). It may also be because the Japanese generally want their families to prosper, just like the Fujiwara clan, which can serve as the head of the family. Repentance.

Similarly, there are many other surnames with the word "rattan" that place the same expectations on them. The second most common surname in Japan is Suzuki, which is similar to Sato, and is the surname of military generals in ancient times.

The surnames in ancient Japan are somewhat different from those in China, and different surnames represent different origins of blood, and even different nationalities**.

There are a number of branches under each clan, this is called Miao in Japan, Miao is the Japanese surname we know now, Miao is more complicated, generally according to the fiefdom, according to the official position, according to the real estate, according to the place of residence, the lord gives a variety of things, and after the branch is expanded, many branches of the branch will also change to the new Miao character. Also, before the Wise Restoration, the Miao character could only be possessed above the samurai class.

Between the clan and the Miao characters, there are also surnames, and surnames represent status, but they have existed for a short time.