Japanese clan surname

1 comment

1. It’s difficult to say.

   During the Meiji era, Japan modernized. That’s when nobility lost their status and gave up much of their land.

   The big problem you have is that commoners before the Meiji era didn’t really have family names. They also rarely tracked their ancestry. But during the Meiji era, every person, commoner or not, started a family register and took on a family name. This means that commoners during this time had to pick a family name. Most times they picked the name of the town or area they lived in or the family name of the clan that they served.

   This makes tracking a name before the 1800s a nightmare. The exception is the clan heads. Generally, the heads of each clan has a detailed family tree that goes way back. So, unless your great grandfather is a direct descendent of the family head at the time, it would be difficult to know if you are actually related, or just a commoner.