In Okinawa nobody wants to be blamed when a tsunami washes away the school.
(Sorry, bad joke.)
So, I am taking the test in July. For the initial level, you only need to know 800 words, as per the website… and to my classmates chagrin, you read the kanji and must choose the hiragana/katakana. Atoga is quite good at this, so far , I have scored 100% in this part in our mock tests. Grammar is also no problem. However, I get all confused when reading paragraphs. My brain is all like scrambled tofu already from reading Chinese characters yet trying to understand the thing in Japanese…
The half Haitian half Japanese tennis star US Open champ today, 20 yrs old goes by name of Naomi Osaka. Her mom is Tamaki Osaka. She was born in Osaka after her grandparents cursed her parents biracial marriage and they moved away from Hokkaido where they met to get away from racist parents and settled in Osaka after not speaking with grandparents of Naomi for ten years.
Question. Is Osaka a real and genuine surname in kanji in Japan or his this a stage name for mom and daughter? I have never seen a japNese named Mr Osaka or miss Osaka as surname. Is it possible. Cite examples if you can. I lived in Japan, speak fluent nihongo, never heard of an Osaka surname. Help. Mods maybe move this to new separate thread re Japan themes and culture,.
Fyi
日本姓氏語源辞典
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I got it now. It is a real surname, 1200 people have the name now. And it is the 7531 least popular name among data base of 40,000 surnames. So Naomi Osaka is her legit name. Not a stage name.
Wow. You guys brought me back with this. I started this thread in 2011… Man, how time flies.
Her family name is 大坂. It seems more popular than 大阪.
|人口|約15,700人|
|順位|1,118 位|
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I see. Thanks. So there are two ways to write Osaka. Which one is Osaka the city and which one is her surname as she writes it on her Twitter account? Naomi she writes in hiragana, but Osaka she writes in kanji. Are those two examples you cited pronounced the same? There is also a female character in a popular manga called Osaka-san, as a nickname, Google will explain how she got that nickname although Osaka is not her family surname and we never learn her real birth surname.
大阪 is Osaka city, but it was 大坂 originally. As for pronunciation, I think they are same, though I’m not very sure.
Do you read Chinese? Wikipedia explains. It seems to say something on pronunciation too.
名稱緣由
大阪原名「 大坂 」，最早是指上町台地的北端，即大阪城一帶。日語的「坂」等同中文所稱的「坡」。當時這一帶被稱為 浪速 、 難波 、 浪花 或 浪華 ，拼音皆寫作「naniwa」（なにわ），其中「浪速」又寫作「namihaya」（なみはや）。1496年，一向宗本願寺第八代法主蓮如在寫給門徒的書信中記載「攝州東成郡生玉之莊內大坂」詞句，是為「大坂」的漢字名稱首次出現在文獻中[27]。當時蓮如在大阪城現址建立「大坂御坊」（即日後的石山本願寺），並隨著寺院勢力的擴張逐漸通行[28]。有說法指「大坂」一詞的原意即「很大的坂」，但在蓮如以前的讀法並非「Ōsaka」（おほさか；歷史假名遣表記）而是「Wosaka」（をさか），而文獻上也有記載「小坂」（おさか Osaka ）的用法，因而此說法缺乏根據。
現今的「大阪」名稱則出現於江戶時代，並在明治時代後取代「大坂」而成為正式地名[27]。之所以將「坂」改寫為「阪」，是因為「坂」字可拆解為「土反」，帶有不祥的含意。另有一說法是，明治新政府上台後認為「坂」字又可拆解作「士反」，也就是武士叛亂的意思，當時官員在文書上為了避諱而改用「阪」字，就陰錯陽差地成為正式用法[29]。
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Thanks for more info. I am busasa in reading kanji, only hiragana katakana. Naomi has grandparents on her mothers side still living in nemuro town in Hokkaido. Her maternal grandpa is Mr Osaka, according to the new York Times article on august 24 by brook larmer . But brook does not mention her grandpas full name such as Osaka Yutaro, just as an example. Can you find his full name in kanji in Japanese news sites and show the three kanji of his full name? That would be instructive. Thanks, Tando-san.
I found her maternal grandfather is 大坂鐵夫 .
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Osaka is pretty rare last name in Japan. In fact, I don’t know anyone around me that has that name.
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Wow, you are research wunderkind. Can you write the name for me in approximate romaji abc letters so I can sound it out, example Osaka Junichiro. But correct words. Domo domo, Sensei.
You can pronounce Osaka Junichiro like:
“OH sa ka (like soccer) Jun YI QI (Like qi wireless charger) roh.”
Now I’m not an expert, so take that into an acoount, pls.
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I actually found the name in a Chinese news site. I rely on kanji to read Japanese information, and I know they pronounce very differently. So, I don’t know how to spell his name.
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Tando Sensei, thanks. I see. I will copy and paste his name in Chinese characters to my friend in Tokyo today, Ebihara Sensei, and she can write out the romaji for me via email and then I will post his name here. Thanks for finding his full name. The new York Times reporter didn’t even mention the grandfathers surname at all. It would have been a journalism scoop of the newspaper could have told readers Naomi’s grandpa full name in abc letters.
I got it now. Tetsuo Osaka in western style and Osaka Tetsuo in Japan name order. But English language newspapers like www.asahi.com are calling Tetsuo Osaka. Age 73, handsome face. He plans to fly to Tokyo Sept 17 to watch Naomi play in international contest in Japan that week.
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