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BarbT
Acolyte

Date Joined Feb 2005
Total Posts : 394

Posted 12/8/2007 2:19 PM (GMT -5)

I'm working on a short story and have run into a research wall. Does anyone know where I can find authentic Japanese names from the feudal period? Exact historical placement isn't important.

Thanks!

Barb

Bill Ward
Biblioholic

Date Joined Jul 2006
Total Posts : 1738

Posted 12/8/2007 2:48 PM (GMT -5)

Here is something that gives surnames by province: http://www.rootsweb.com/~jpnwgw/Names.html

Here is one that gives a lot of names and info: gaminggeeks.org/Resources/KateMonk/Orient/Japan/index.htm

Is there anything that led you to think the surnames would be particularly different? By feudal period do you just mean the shogunate, or older periods? I'm not an expert in this area so maybe these common names wouldn't' be as appropriate if one goes back as far or further than the medieval period.

billwardwriter.com

Steven the Git
Acolyte

Date Joined Nov 2007
Total Posts : 225

Posted 12/8/2007 4:00 PM (GMT -5)

Here's some of real figures I know of:

Takeda Shingen
Uesugi Kenshin
Oda Nobunaga
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Tokugawa Ieyasu

All were warlords, all famous. Only spelling I'm not sure of is Uesugi. I also spelt the names as they do, surname first.

cussedness
Adept

Date Joined Apr 2005
Total Posts : 857

Posted 12/8/2007 4:17 PM (GMT -5)

The hereditary nobility had short names and the peasantry had long names.

Janrae Frank
I have no skeletons in my closet, they are all hanging from the yardarm.

Once there were three brothers, Brandrahoon the vampire, Isranon called the Dawnhand, speaker to spirits, and Waejonan the Accursed, first of sa’necari. Isranon defied his brothers and was destroyed, his descendants forced into the darkness.

Blood Rites
www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook29989.htm
website
www.janraefrank.com
Darkzone
www.janraefrank.com/Vanilla.1.0.1/

Hearthweru
Neophyte

Date Joined Dec 2005
Total Posts : 127

Posted 12/9/2007 9:59 AM (GMT -5)

Hey Barb,

try the Samurai Archives . . .

http://www.samurai-archives.com/index.html

'Haiku Short' at Liar's League...

http://www.myspace.com/liarsleaguelisten

'Grimble' at Southern Ocean Review...

http://www.arts.org.nz/grimb.htm

BarbT
Acolyte

Date Joined Feb 2005
Total Posts : 394

Posted 12/10/2007 5:45 PM (GMT -5)

Thanks, everyone. :) I hadn't seen any of these sites before - very helpful information!

Bill, I gathered from the research I had done that Japanese given names have a short "shelf-life" and that names that are popular now would not have been in use during the Shogunate or earlier. Since my characters are craftsmen, pre 1850, they would likely not have used surnames? ( )

The historical period is unstated and flexible. My main character is a master steel-smelter with an order for steel good enough for Katana. His problems are mythical, not historical.

Armed with all this knowlege, I will blunder forward, hoping to offend no one!

Thanks again,

Barb

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