Surnames from Sengoku Jinmyō Jiten

The following are lists of surnames taken from Sengoku Biographical Dictionary, Compact Edition (「戦国人名事典コンパクト版」, or Sengoku Jinmyō Jiten), listed in English alphabetical order, organized by the first letter in the Romanized spelling.

In assisting with SCA name registration, it became apparent that there were quite a few names that I ran across in studying Japanese history that were not in the SCA's primary name registration source, Name Construction in Medieval Japan, though it provides a good number of given names and bynames (with rules to create the former). Accordingly, I thought it would be useful to have a more extensive list of surnames available.

Sengoku Jinmyō Jiten is a biographical dictionary of personages in the Sengoku Period, defined by them as the period 1467-1615. Although strict dates are not given for all entries, it can be assumed that they were active during this period. Furthermore, with rare exception, all of these individuals would have been adults during this period. As such, the case can be made that these should all be plausible as pre-17th century names for SCA purposes, which this documentation is geared towards.

Please note that these names are all bynames that would come in the first position before a given name or nanori. While these are primarily family names, there are also names that appear to be locatives (e.g. names of provinces, towns, temples) and possibly occupational bynames or nicknames. As these could all function as surnames, I have included them in the list. Because the format of the book did not specify surnames and given names in the header, where I could not discern a viable surname I did not record it. Typically the surname was obvious based on the given name or nanori attached to it, but where it was not clear and I could not disambiguate through another source, I let it be. As such, there may be further names in the book that could be extracted for those with the language skills who wish to do so.

To ensure completeness, I have included some names that may not be usable within the SCA due to their presumptive nature. These include the names Toyotomi and Tokugawa, names created in the 16th century specifically for those houses, who came to be rulers of the country, as well as the shogunal Ashikaga family.

I have specifically avoided priestly names; names of individuals not from Japan (e.g. Korean, Chinese, Portuguese); many art names; nanori, zokyumyō/yobina, religious names, etc. in this table. That undertaking would be even more time consuming than the current effort, and is unlikely to present much better documentation than is already available in works like Name Construction in Medieval Japan, which provides the elements to construct plausible given names as needed.

Furthermore, I did not distinguish between surnames for kuge, buke, or various commoners. While this may be a task for another day, for the time being this is presented as-is, and for further information on a given name it is recommended that individuals check the source material, if those distinctions matter. For purposes of the SCA, these names should be viable with a properly formed given name, whether yobina, nanori, or even Buddhist lay names.

Regarding the Romanization

• I have used Modified Hepburn, although the names remain in English alphabetical order (so “oo” still comes before “ou”, even though both are romanized as ō). Where you see “oo” or “ou” it indicates that there is a word border between the two. Thus, the name “Komooka” is made up of two kanji, “Komo” + “oka”.

• I have left the original kanji, as found in the dictionary, to the best of my ability, though different fonts may render the same character slightly differently.

• The Romanization is taken from the hiragana as provided in the dictionary, and in cases where there were multiple pronunciations of the same name or multiple kanji for the same name, those have been added as separate entries, even though the SCA only requires the Romanized form.

Sengoku Biographical Dictionary, Compact Edition was first published in 1990 with a second publication in 2003 by Shinjinbutsu Ouraisha, from which this current work is derived. ISBN 4-404-01752-9.

Despite my best efforts, there may yet be mistakes. If found, please contact us so that we may correct them. At last count there were a total of 2227 surnames listed.