ABSTRACT
Without venturing upon an historical inv esti gation of th e pe rsonal nam es of Japan , it is convenient, so far at least as conce rns th e ten or eleven cen tur ies preced ing th e pr esent regime, to classify th em broadl y as foll ow s :-
~ ma Ilr...Sugawara* Oye * IT Ab e ~ 1ti
A.-GROUP NAMES. (I) CLAN-NAM ES, :!l':l: sei or kabane, born e by hereditary right or as a
pri vil ege gra nted by author ity. They are not many in number and a re for th e most part of identi cal construc t ion w ith th e ordi nary family-name or surnam e (2)- indeed many of th em appear independently in th e latter guise. The best -kn own exa mples 1 a re :-
Otomo * i$ Fujiwara* jfi ,m{ Sog a lj ~ Minamoto* iJJi. Mononobe !j:f)] ::m Taira* Zfi Nakatorni SP 1"2 Ki * ~ Kiyowara mmt T achibana* llJi
When a nam e is written in full, th e clan-na me follows the surname a nd immedi ately precedes th e nanorl (see (5) be low) but for th e indispensable epenthet ic no, a sort of genit ival ' postposition' analogous to th e Ge rma n VO Il (thus : Fujiwara no I<.amatari ). This no is properly insert ed in read ing a nd in a kana or roman transl iteration, but it is (or should be) never represented wh en th e nam e is written purely in Chinese scrip t.
