A Comparison of the Korean and Japanese Approaches to Foreign Family Names

Abstract

Abstract There are many foreign family names in Korean and Japanese genealogies. This paper is especially focused on the fact that out of approximately 280 Korean family names, roughly half are of foreign origin, and that out of those foreign family names, the majority trace their beginnings to China. In Japan, the Newly Edited Register of Family Names (新撰姓氏錄), published in 815, records that out of 1,182 aristocratic clans in the capital and its surroundings, 326 clans-approximately one-third-originated from China and Korea. Does the prevalence of foreign family names reflect migration from China to Korea, and from China and Korea to Japan? Or is it perhaps a result of Korean Sinophilia (慕華思想) and Japanese admiration for Korean and Chinese cultures? Or could there be an entirely distinct explanation? First I discuss premodern Korean and ancient Japanese foreign family names, and then I examine the formation and characteristics of these family names. Next I analyze how migration from China to Korea, as well as from China and Korea to Japan, occurred in their historical contexts. Through these studies, I derive answers to the above-mentioned questions.