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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Japanese (mostly eastern) : from a term meaning ‘plain of the shrine’. Families of Kii (now Wakayama prefecture) and Kazusa (now part of Chiba prefecture) are of Minamoto descent; while a family of Hyūga (now Miyazaki prefecture) descends from the Taira clan. The name is listed in the Shinsen shōjiroku.

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