Shadowings
Page 8
"Iyo,"—province of Iyo, in Shikoku.
O-Kawa (rare)
"River."
O-Kishi
"Beach,"—shore.
O-Kita
"North."
O-Kiwa
"Border."
O-Kuni
"Province."
O-Kyō
"Capital,"—metropolis,—Kyōto.
O-Machi
"Town."
Matsuë
"Matsuë,"—chief city of Izumo.
O-Mina1
"South."
O-Miné
"Peak."
O-Miya
"Temple" [Shintō].2
O-Mon3
"Gate."
O-Mura
"Village."
O-Nami4
"Wave."
Naniwa
"Naniwa,"—ancient name of Ōsaka.
O-Nishi
"West."
O-Rin
"Park."
O-Saki
"Cape."
O-Sato
"Native Place,"—village,—also, home.
O-Sawa
"Marsh."
O-Seki
"Toll-Gate,"—barrier.
Shigéki
"Thickwood,"—forest.
O-Shima
"Island."
O-Sono
"Flower-garden."
O-Taki
"Cataract,"—or Waterfall
O-Tani
"Valley."
O-Tsuka
"Milestone."
O-Yama
"Mountain."
1 Abbreviation of Minami.
2 I must confess that in classing this name as a place-name, I am only making a guess. It seems to me that the name probably refers to the ichi no miya, or chief Shinto temple of some province.
3 I fancy that this name, like that of O-Séki, must have originated in the custom of naming children after the place, or neighborhood, where the family lived. But here again, I am guessing.
4 This classification also is a guess. I could learn nothing about the name, except the curious fact that it is said to be unlucky.
The next list is a curious medley, so far as regards the quality of the yobina comprised in it. Some are really æsthetic and pleasing; others industrial only; while a few might be taken for nicknames of the most disagreeable kind.
NAMES OF OBJECTS AND OF OCCUPATIONS ESPECIALLY PERTAINING TO WOMEN
Ayako or
O-Aya1 }
"Damask-pattern."
O-Fumi
"Woman's Letter."
O-Fusa
"Tassel."
O-Ito
"Thread."
O-Kama2
"Rice-Sickle."
O-Kama
"Caldron."
Kazashi
"Hair-pin."
O-Kinu
"Cloth-of-Silk."
O-Koto
"Harp."
O-Nabé
"Pot,"—or cooking-vessel.
O-Nui
"Embroidery."
O-Shimé
"Clasp,"—ornamental fastening.
O-Somé
"The Dyer."
O-Taru
"Cask,"—barrel.
1 Aya-Nishiki,—the famous figured damask brocade of Kyōto,—Is probably referred to.
2 O-Kama (Sickle) is a familiar peasant-name. O-Kama (caldron, or Iron cooking-pot), and several other ugly names in this list are servants' names. Servants in old time not only trained their children to become servants, but gave them particular names referring to their future labors.
The following list consists entirely of material nouns used as names. There are several yobina among them of which I cannot find the emblematical meaning. Generally speaking, the yobina which signify precious substances, such as silver and gold, are æsthetic names; and those which signify common hard substances, such as stone, rock, iron, are intended to suggest firmness or strength of character. But the name "Rock" is also sometimes used as a symbol of the wish for long life, or long continuance of the family line. The curious name Suna has nothing, however, to do with individual "grit": it is half-moral and half-æsthetic. Fine sand—especially colored sand—is much prized in this fairy-land of landscape-gardening, where it is used to cover spaces that must always be kept spotless and beautiful, and never trodden,—except by the gardener.
MATERIAL NOUNS USED AS NAMES
O-Gin
"Silver."
O-Ishi
"Stone."
O-Iwa
"Rock."
O-Kané
"Bronze."
O-Kazé1
"Air,"—perhaps Wind.
O-Kin
"Gold."
O-Ruri2
Ruriko
}
"Emerald,"—emeraldine?
O-Ryū
"Fine Metal."
O-Sato
"Sugar."
O-Seki
"Stone."
O-Shiwo
"Salt."
O-Suna
"Sand."
O-Suzu
"Tin."
O-Tané
"Seed."
O-Tetsu
"Iron."
1 I cannot find any explanation of this curious name.
1 The Japanese name does not give the same quality of æsthetic sensation as the name Esmeralda. The ruri is not usually green, but blue; and the term "ruri-iro" (emerald color) commonly signifies a dark violet.
The following five yobina are æsthetic names,—although literally signifying things belonging to intellectual work. Four of them, at least, refer to calligraphy,—the matchless calligraphy of the Far East,—rather than to anything that we should call "literary beauty."
LITERARY NAMES
O-Bun
"Composition."
O-Fudé
"Writing-Brush."
O-Fumi
"Letter."
O-Kaku
"Writing."
O-Uta
"Poem."
Names relating to number are very common, but also very interesting. They may be loosely divided into two sub-classes,—names indicating the order or the time of birth, and names of felicitation. Such yobina as Ichi, San, Roku, Hachi usually refer to the order of birth; but sometimes they record the date of birth. For example, I know a person called O-Roku, who received this name, not because she was the sixth child born in the family, but because she entered this world upon the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth Meiji. It will be observed that the numbers Two, Five, and Nine are not represented in the list: the mere idea of such names as O-Ni, O-Go, or O-Ku seems to a Japanese absurd. I do not know exactly why,—unless it be that they suggest unpleasant puns. The place of O-Ni is well supplied, however, by the name O-Tsugi ("Next"), which will be found in a subsequent list. Names signifying numbers ranging from eighty to a thousand, and upward, are names of felicitation. They express the wish that the bearer may live to a prodigious age, or that her posterity may flourish through the centuries.
NUMERALS AND WORDS RELATING TO NUMBER
O-Ichi
"One."
O-San
"Three."
O-Mitsu
"Three."
O-Yotsu
"Four."
O-Roku
"Six."
O-Shichi
"Seven."
O-Hachi
"Eight."
O-Jū
"Ten."
O-Iso
"Fifty."1
O-Yaso
"Eighty."
O-Hyaku
"Hundred."2
O-Yao
"Eight Hundred."
O-Sen
"Thousand."
O-Michi
"Three Thousand."
O-Man
"Ten Thousand."
O-Chiyo
"Thousand Generations."
Yachiyo
"Eight Thousand Generations."
O-Shigé
"Two-fold."
&
nbsp; O-Yaë
"Eight-fold."
O-Kazu
"Great Number."
O-Mina
"All."
O-Han
"Half."1
O-Iku
"How Many?" (?)
1 Such a name may record the fact that the girl was a first-born child, and the father fifty years old at the time of her birth.
2 The "O" before this trisyllable seems contrary to rule; but Hyaku is pronounced almost like a dissyllable.
1 "Better half?"—the reader may query. But I believe that this name originated in the old custom of taking a single character of the father's name—sometimes also a character of the mother's name—to compose the child's name with. Perhaps in this case the name of the girl's father was HANyémon, or HANbei.
OTHER NAMES RELATING TO ORDER OF BIRTH
O-Hatsu
"Beginning,"—first-born.
O-Tsugi
"Next,"—the second.
O-Naka
"Midmost."
O-Tomé
"Stop,"—cease.
O-Sué
"Last."
Some few of the next group of names are probably æsthetic. But such names are sometimes given only in reference to the time or season of birth; and the reason for any particular yobina of this class is difficult to decide without personal inquiry.
NAMES RELATING TO TIME AND SEASON
O-Haru
"Spring."
O-Natsu
"Summer."
O-Aki
"Autumn."
O-Fuyu
"Winter."
O-Asa
"Morning."
O-Chō
"Dawn."
O-Yoi
"Evening."
O-Sayo
"Night."
O-Ima
"Now."
O-Toki
"Time,"—opportunity.
O-Toshi
"Year [of Plenty]."
Names of animals—real or mythical—form another class of yobina. A name of this kind generally represents the hope that the child will develop some quality or capacity symbolized by the creature after which it has been called. Names such as "Dragon," "Tiger," "Bear," etc., are intended in most cases to represent moral rather than other qualities. The moral symbols ism of the Koi (Carp) is too well-known to require explanation here. The names Kamé and Tsuru refer to longevity. Koma, curious as the fact may seem, is a name of endearment.
NAMES OF BIRDS, FISHES, ANIMALS, ETC.
Chidori
"Sanderling."
O'Kamé
"Tortoise."
O-Koi
"Carp."1
O-Koma
"Filly,"—or pony.
O-Kuma
"Bear."
O-Ryō
"Dragon."
O-Shika
"Deer."
O-Tai
"Bream."1
O-Taka
"Hawk."
O-Tako
"Cuttlefish." (?)
O-Tatsu
"Dragon."
O-Tora
"Tiger."
O-Tori
"Bird."
O-Tsuru
"Stork."2
O-Washi
"Eagle."
1 Cyprinus carpio.
1 Chrysophris cardinalis.
2 Sometimes this name is shortened into O-Tsu. In Tōkyō at the present time it is the custom to drop the honorific "O" before such abbreviations, and to add to the name the suffix "chan,"—as in the case of children's names. Thus a young woman may be caressingly addressed as "Tsu-chan" (for O-Tsuru), "Ya-chan" (for O-Yasu), etc.
Even yobina which are the names of flowers or fruits, plants or trees, are in most cases names of moral or felicitous, rather than of æsthetic meaning. The plumflower is an emblem of feminine virtue; the chrysanthemum, of longevity; the pine, both of longevity and constancy; the bamboo, of fidelity; the cedar, of moral rectitude; the willow, of docility and gentleness, as well as of physical grace. The symbolism of the lotos and of the cherryflower are probably familiar. But such names as Hana ("Blossom") and Ben ("Petal") are æsthetic in the true sense; and the Lily remains in Japan, as elsewhere, an emblem of feminine grace.
FLOWER-NAMES
Ayamé
"Iris."1
Azami
"Thistle-Flower."
O-Ben
"Petal."
O-Fuji
"Wistaria."2
O-Hana
"Blossom."
O-Kiku
"Chrysanthemum."
O-Ran
"Orchid."
O-Ren
"Lotos."
Sakurdko
"Cherryblossom."
O-Umé
"Plumflower."
O-Yuri
"Lily."
1 Iris setosa, or Iris sibrisia.
2 Wistaria chinensis.
NAMES OF PLANTS, FRUITS, AND TREES
O-Iné
"Rice-in-the-blade."
Kaëdé
"Maple-leaf."
O-Kaya
"Rush."3
O-Kaya
"Yew."4
O-Kuri
"Chestnut."
O-Kuwa
"Mulberry."
O-Maki
"Fir."5
O-Mamé
"Bean."
O-Momo
"Peach,"—the fruit.1
O-Nara
"Oak."
O-Ryū
"Willow."
Sanaë
"Sprouting-Rice."
O-Sané
"Fruit-seed."
O-Shino
"Slender Bamboo."
O-Sugé
"Reed."2
O-Sugi
"Cedar."3
O-Také
"Bamboo."
O-Tsuta
"Ivy."4
O-Yaë
"Double-Blossom."5
O-Yoné
"Rice-in-grain."
Wakana
"Young Na."6
3 Imperata arundinacea.
4 Torreya nucifera.
5 Podocarpus chinensis.
1 Yet this name may possibly have been written with the wrong character. There is another yobina, "Momo" signifying "hundred,"—as in the phrase momo yo, "for a hundred ages."
2 Scirpus maritimus.
3 Cryptomeria Japonica.
4 Cissus Thunbergii.
5 A flower-name certainly; but the yaï here is probably an abbreviation of yaë-zakura, the double-flower of a particular species of cherry tree.
6 Brassica chinensis.
Names signifying light or color seem to us the most æsthetic of all yobina; and they probably seem so to the Japanese. Nevertheless the relative purport even of these names cannot be divined at sight. Colors have moral and other values in the old nature-philosophy; and an appellation that to the Western mind suggests only luminosity or beauty may actually refer to moral or social distinction,—to the hope that the girl so named will become "illustrious."
NAMES SIGNIFYING BRIGHTNESS
O-Mika
"New Moon."1
O-Mitsu
"Light."
O-Shimo
"Frost."
O-Teru
"The Shining."
O-Tsuki
"Moon."
O-Tsuya
"The Glossy,"—lustrous.
O-Tsuyu
"Dew."
O-Yuki
"Snow."
1 Mika is an abbreviation of Mikazuki, "the moon of the third night" [of the old lunar month].
COLOR-NAMES
O-Ai
" Indigo."
O-Aka
"Red."
O-Iro
"Color."
O-Kon
"Deep Blue."
O-Kuro
"Dark,"—lit.."Black."
Midori2
"Green."
Murasaki2
"Purple."
O-Shiro
&nbs
p; "White."
2 Midori and Murasaki, especially the latter, should properly be classed with aristocratic yobina; and both are very rare. I could find neither in the collection of aristocratic names which was made for me from the records of the Peeresses' School; but I discovered a "Midori" in a list of middle-class names. Color-names being remarkably few among yobina, I thought it better in this instance to group the whole of them together, independently of class-distinctions.
The following and final group of female names contains several queer puzzles. Japanese girls are sometimes named after the family crest; and heraldry might explain one or two of these yobina. But why a girl should be called a ship, I am not sure of being able to guess. Perhaps some reader may be reminded of Nietzsche's "Little Brig called Angeline":—