premodern naming conventions

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Morgan Pitelka

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Feb 3, 2012, 10:14:38 AM2/3/12

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To follow up on David Eason's and Ron Toby's comments, I wanted to cite the example of a letter by Tokugawa Ieyasu granting the use of the character "masu" to a vassal, a typical ichi-ji jô of the sort that David mentioned. What is interesting is that the letter is so early, written in Eiroku 4 (1561), less than a year after Imagawa Yoshimoto's death and Ieyasu's return to Okazaki Castle. The letter seems to be part of Ieyasu's youthful attempt to assert his control over Mikawa and to reestablish Matsudaira authority. At the time, Ieyasu (who as a boy was known as Takechiyo, as Ron noted) still went by the name Motoyasu, an interesting combination of the "moto" character from his captor/liege Imagawa Yoshimoto's name, and "yasu" taken from his grandfather (and the last reasonably powerful Matsudaira) Kiyoyasu's name. After changing his name to Ieyasu in 1563, he continued to grant the right to use "yasu" to vassals, for example once in 1583 (not long after Nobunaga's death in 1582) and twice in 1586 (at the height of his conflict with Hideyoshi, before his submission in the 10th month). At the least it is clear that granting naming privileges was part of the basic toolkit of warrior authority, and that the context for the usage of this tool is often revealing.

I would also note that in chapter 3 of my book Handmade Culture: Raku Potters, Patrons and Tea Practitioners in Japan, I argued that the Raku ceramic workshop reinvented itself as a closed household enterprise when confronted by new competition, a new market reality, and new administrative policies that increased the importance of the ie as a unit in the second half of the seventeenth century. Key to this reinvention was the adoption of naming conventions in which the head of the household would always be known as "Kichizaemon," and upon stepping down from that position would take a Buddhist retirement name ending in the character "nyû," similar to the naming practices in other elite urban commoner houses.

This is all much later than the example Joseph cited in his question, but hopefully it will be of interest.

Best,

Morgan

*****************

Morgan Pitelka

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Asian Studies Department

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Triangle Center for Japanese Studies

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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill