Analyzing Migration of Japanese from the Origin of Family Names

Arita, MasahiroComafay, NicolleYasui, Hirotada

Contents of Presentation

• Introduction and Data Representation• Common Points from Count and

Percentage maps• Origin of 5 Family Names• Conclusion• Suggestions

Assigned Names

Romaji Kanji Rank

Sato 佐藤 1

Kan 菅 500

Kusumoto 楠本 858

Yoko 横 17,585

Fuma 府馬 24,479

Map Representation of the 5 Names • 5 classes were used to

classify low to high concentration of the 5 family names. Many cartographers advise the use of 5-7 classes for choropleth maps.

• According to Color Brewer, ordered data are better represented by light to dark colors.

• Also, dark red and brown colors were used because they are better seen from a projected screen.

Comparison of Count Score

Comparison of Percentage Score

Common Points for the 5 Names

• According to the Count and Percentage Score maps, the all 5 names tend to concentrate in the urban areas.

→This could be explained by common trend anywhere in the world of people residing in big cities for work and universities.

According to the Index Score Sato is concentrated around the Tohoku (north-eastern) region of Japan.

• Top 3 prefectures are

1. Akita

2. Yamagata

3. Miyagi

Sato• Representative family name of the Eastern

part of Japan.• Origin of the name Sato is Fujiwara 藤原

Hidesato, who during the Heian Period governed Shimotsuke (now Tochigi) prefecture from a place called Sano 佐野 . Therefore Sato is derived from the “Sa” 佐 of 佐野 and “to” of 藤原 .

• Another speculation takes the “Sa” from the title Saemon no jo 佐衛門尉 , an office held by a distinguished descendant of Hidesato.

Map of index shows that Kan is concentrated

①around the Seto-Naikai Area (Seto Inland Sea) , and

western Tohoku of ②Japan.

Kan①The roots of the name Kan is from these areas. The origin of Kan is Sugawara.→abbreviated from “ 菅原＝ Sugawara” to “ 菅 =Kan→ One speculation is that Kan is Okayama in

origin , however there were many people who have relations to Sugawara in Tohoku. ② There is another person believed to be the origin of Kan, named Kan. It is the other reason that Kan is concentrated around Setouchi-sea, Ehime and Oita.

Map shows that Kusumoto is concentrated in Wakayama Prefecture → Wakayama seems to have certain relationship with name Kusumoto.

1.Wakayama city has the district or address named Kusumoto

2. Kanji of Kusu ( 楠 ) 　 means Japanese cinnamon which is the tree of Wakayama city.

3. Wakayama Pref has shrine where Japanese cinnamon is worshiped as a god (Arita shrine at Nisimurogun kusimotocho 西牟婁郡串本町有田 )

*this are also has certain amount of population of Kusumoto

Kusumoto (1)

Tree of Japanese cinnamon at Arita shrine

Kusumoto (2)• 4. Another shrine named aritohshi shrine ( 蟻通神社 ) at Tanabe city

has some folk story relatad to Japanese cinnamon.– e.g. when earthquake happened in Ansei era, cinnamomum camphora (or white

snake living there) stop the expand of fire by spitting water out. *Kusumoto is classfied in a Top10 family name in Tanabe city

– Name kusumoto might be related to or generated from

name of area or regionbiology of the areaanimism

Aritohshi Shrine

•The index score map shows that Fuma is concentrated in southern Kanto, especially Chiba account for 69%. （ all of Japan:74,Chiba:51 ）

Fuma

→This explained by the fact that the roots of the family name Fuma is in Chiba.

⇒They are descendants of emperor-related samurai family KanmuHeiji-Chibashi. They entered the Fuma-castle, and have settled down in this area.

According to the map:

The concentration of Yoko is around the western part of Japan and Toyama prefecture.

Yoko• Unfortunately, we have not found any

information regarding the origin of the name Yoko with the kanji 横 .

• However, there is a trend of using one-Kanji-family names around Toyama prefecture.

• Also, in Toyama prefecture, there is a town called Yokomachi at Namerikawa City.

• From this we can make an educational guess that, Toyama may be the origin of the name Yoko.

Conclusion (1): Origin of family names comes from

– Names of Authority • e.g. Sugawara and Fujiwara

– Names of Place of Origins• e.g. Fuma Yoko Kusumoto

– Animism• e.g. Worship of Japanese Cinnamon

Conclusion (2): Movement of Japanese Names

• Based on the origin of the names, we can see a migration pattern of Japanese family names.– 　 there is a tendency of movement towards big cities

near the origin of the names.e.g ① 　 In the case of Fuma, they remain in Chiba

because Tokyo is nearby. Possible to reside in Chiba while working or studying in Tokyo.

　　　② In the case of Yoko, the possible origin is in Toyama, which is in the middle of the big island Honshu, therefore they can choose between Tokyo in the east, Nagoya in the middle and Osaka in the west.

Recommendation for Further Studies

• It is also important to study the migration of Japanese Family Names outside Japan. They are concentrated in Northern America, Argentina, New Zealand and some parts of Europe.

World Distribution of Japanese Family Names

Source: www.publicprofiler.org

Source: www.publicprofiler.orgWorld Distribution of Sato

Source: www.publicprofiler.org

World Distribution of Kan

World Distribution of Kusumoto

Source: www.publicprofiler.org

World Distribution of Yoko

World Distribution of Fuma

Result of World Profiler

• The concentration of the 5 names do not show any variation from the concentration of names with Japanese ethnicity around the world.

• No special characteristics of the 5 names were found at this time.

• Although we believe that more time and further analysis would present interesting result regarding the migration of family names outside Japan.

Thank You Very Much!

ありがとうございました！

Maraming Salamat Po!