Transwiki:Researching Japanese names

A variety of reference material is available for looking up information about Japanese names. Below is some information about the most comprehensive and widely available resources.

Reading names
The Nihon seishi daijiten is a two volume family name dictionary. One is arranged by stroke-number, the other arranged in gojūon order, and contains 33 different categories of name origin, indicated by a circled characters next to entries. The third volume (kaisetsu-hen) discusses the history of Japanese names, house crests, etc.

The Monshō dai shō sei and Kamon daizukan are family-crest dictionaries that contain symbols or designs adopted as insignia by individuals, families, or other groups and applied to banners or armor for identification in battle, or to clothing or possessions for decoration. These symbols occupy an esteemed place among the graphic arts of Japan. Many of the most popular motifs first appeared in Japan simply as patterns on the costumes and paraphernalia of the court aristocracy of the Nara (710–794) and Heian (794–1185) periods. Family crests (kamon) were a product of the wars that ushered in the warrior class and the feudal era in the late 12th century. There is no single definitive collection of Japanese crests in general or of family crests in particular. The total number of design variations is probably between 4,000 and 5,000, with the most popular general categories being plants, flowers, and trees. Also depicted on crests are tools, implements, and other man-made objects, birds, insects, and animals, heavenly bodies and geographical features, abstract patterns and designs, and ideographs and symbols.

Historical personages
The Sengoku jinmei jiten contains biographical material on Kamakura, Muromachi, and Sengoku historical personages. Entries are arranged in gojūon order and include persons from the field of politics, economy, society, religion, literature, and art.

The Heibonsha Dai jinmei jiten is a 10 volume set published in 1953 as the first truly modern multi-volume dictionary of Japanese biography. It covers persons deceased prior to 1953, and is indexed by gojūon. Volumes 7 & 8 cover foreigners (indexed alphabetically). In general, more detailed information can usually be found in historical and literary dictionaries than in this resource.

Who's who's
The Shintei gendai Nihon jinmeiroku is the definitive source for information on living Japanese. It includes 105,000 entries, arranged in gojūon order. Entries include occupation, educational record, birthdate, professional resume, contact address, hobbies, professional associations, and contact address. The date the record was last updated is also included at the end of each entry.

The Jinji koshinroku includes living leading figures in politics, government, academia, religion, business and the arts. It is arranged in gojūon order by kanji. Includes a brief biographical entry, with such information as contacts or friends and biographies of immediate family members. Listings depend on amount of tax paid, so also serves as a directory of wealth.

The Jinbutsu Jōhō database is a database that can be reached here

Copyright holders, etc.
Gendai Nihon shippitsusha daijiten

name pseudonym(s) (if any) speciality and area of interest or current theme of research date of birth/death hometown 出身地 educational history current awards, prizes, honors etc. (since 1991) group affiliations languages spoken and/or used when translating place of work contact details
 * Extensive listings of 120,000 Japanese writers in all areas but the natural sciences
 * Each entry contains bibliography of publications between the years 1977-1982, including newspaper and magazine articles, interviews, and published books
 * Biographical data includes:

Kenkyūsha kenkyū kadai sōran: Jinbun shakai kagaku hen

name date of birth university specialities position held background degrees held association memberships research interests publications
 * Two-volume resource prepared by MEXT
 * Contains biographical information on 136,000 living scholars (Japanese and European) engaged in a variety of disciplines in Japan, including philosophy, psychology, sociology, education, anthropology, history, art history, literature, science, and economics
 * Entries are arranged by gojūon order for Japanese names and alphabetical order for European names
 * Entries include professional title, highest degree, awards, affiliated institution, current research topics (limit 3), and publications (limit 3)
 * Biographical data includes:

Necrologies
Meiji kakochō: bukko jinmei jiten

The Meiji kakochō is the result of a labor of love of its compiler, Ōue, and the personal attention that it was given by him is apparent throughout. For example, the last page has the inscription, "限りなき幽魂のために" (For the sake of the infinite souls). The detail that is given in many of the entries comes largely from obituaries and other research by the author/compiler. To compile this work, Ōue consulted postal records from Meiji 5 (1872), countless newspapers, and official gazettes/telegrams; he visited various temples and cemeteries, including military cemeteries, and collected epitaphs. The editor gives as much information as possible based on all of his collected data. This volume includes a chart for figuring out the ages of the deceased if they are not given in the text entry.
 * Continuous necrology of modern Japan
 * Edited by Ōue Shiro, a medical doctor with a hobby for tracking down the deceased
 * Biographical information varies from 4-10 lines
 * Original idea was that of a kakochō, a temple register of the deceased, in chronological order
 * Primary listings are in order of death
 * Observations:
 * Cause of death is included in most entries. This might be of use to someone researching epidemics or other related topics.

Shōwa bukko jinmeiroku


 * The Shōwa bukko jinmei roku includes deceased persons from 1926.12.25 to 1979.12.31.
 * A typical entry gives simply *name, *dates of birth and death, *age at death, *main occupation, and *place of birth. It does not give place of death.  An interesting feature of this dictionary is the chart/index in the back that lists in order of year, month and day, everybody who died on the respective day, their age at death, and their former occupation.
 * primary listing in gojūon order (the standard order of the Japanese syllabary)

Kansei Chōshū Shokafu
There are four main groups of names into which the indexes are organized: seishi 姓氏 (surname), imina 諱 (posthumous name, 忌み名), and shōko 稱呼 (appellation/name), which includes all other types of names not found in the other categories, such as yōmei 幼名, tsūshō 通称, gō 号, ingō 院号, etc. Under this last category, shōko, there are two additional sections for names based on ranks and titles: kanshokumei 官職名,　kokumei 国名. While there are four basic types of names that the indexes deal with, each of the four index volumes do not correspond equally with one name type. The name-type shōko occupies the majority of the indexes (and hence the dictionary), with a total of 931 pages, including the two subcategories kanshokumei and kokumei. The seishi (surname) only occupies about one tenth of the first index volume. This would obviously indicate that the way to go about tracking someone down in these volumes is not by their surname, but first by their shōko, and then by their imina, which occupies 688 pages of the indexes.
 * When using this reference, the four-volume index should be turned to first.

Nichigai WHO
(also known as: Nichigai/web sābisu who, Nichigai/web who) Online database containing biographical information about more than 420,000 Japanese. Contains name, place and date of birth, occupation, current address/contact information, career history, and hobbies. It notes when entry was last updated. Lists works published for academics, roles/albums for actors and musicians, and positions held by political figures.

Database allows you to enter name in hiragana/katakana in case kanji reading of name is unknown.