Takarazuka: Sparkles, Glitter, And Women In Drag

Reon Yuzuki and Nene Yumesaki

Almost everyone knows about Japanese anime - you know, that East Asian medium that has been blasting through the West's youth for the past few decades. You've probably also heard your share of Japanese pop and rock, including the visual kei that depicts heavy rocking men in long hair, heavy make-up, and sometimes Victorian dresses. You may have even seen a Japanese movie or drama, even if you didn't know it at the time.

And let's not forget the traditional Japanese mediums like kabuki, (which is all male, even in the female roles) and bunraku, the puppet theater. What most people who aren't lesbians obsessed with Japan haven't heard of is the world of all-female musical, takarazuka. 

Takarazuka has a long, long history when compared to some other modern Japanese arts. It was established in the early twentieth century by a railroad company to entice tourism to the central Japanese city Takarazuka. The idea was to hire all women to perform both female and male roles, in both classical and modern musicals, as an opposing hook to the all-male kabuki. Over the decades takarazuka musicals because so popular that the original troupe (called Flower) was gradually split into four other troupes: Moon, Snow, Star, and Cosmos, in that order. (There's also the Supreme Troupe, featuring older actresses who have yet to retire.) Each troupe has their own general niche and "top stars" that attract fans for generations.


Besides indulging in the over-dramatic, crazy singing and dancing skills, and shooting glitter at everyone, takarazuka's main appeal is the "otokoyaku", or the "male" performers. Actresses (commonly called siennes) are split into either the otokoyaku or musumeyaku (female) groups early on in their training. Women in the otokoyaku group are instructed to act as manly as possible both in their professional and personal lives. Over the decades this has meant the otokoyaku have become the driving force behind takarazuka, as they offer a gendered escape from reality for both oppressed housewives and dirty-minded lesbians. (Darn, right?)

That said, the bulk of takarazuka's fans are women: specifically, middle-aged women. It's becoming more popular with younger women (particularly outside of Japan, thanks to the Internet) but the bread and butter of the business is still with the average everyday housewife. Many experts have tried to understand this phenomenon, but it mostly comes down to gender liberation and, well, come on. It's hot androgynous women strutting around being fabulous. Do I really need to spell this shit out? I didn't think so.

I've been a casual fan for many years, but it's only in the past year I got to the point where I was finally learning names and caring beyond "lol they're hot." When creating the Ren'Ai Rensai series, I knew I wouldn't be able to get past two novels without creating a full blown subplot involving these salacious musicals. Finally, "KATAOMOI." introduces a takarazuka-related subplot focusing on 90's zuka. (You better memorize the name Miki Maya right now.) It was a blast to write, and I'm kinda sad it's over. But I can't force Aiko to be obsessed forever. Well, I could, but it would be pretty obvious.

I will now round off this post with a clip featuring, arguably, the biggest otokoyaku and musumeyaku actresses in recent takarazuka history: Yuu Todoroki and Mari Hanafusa, respectively.

Japanese Naming Conventions 2, Or Fun With Villages, Fields, and Mountains

Last week I discussed Japanese naming conventions for first names. This week, it's family land ville!

Most of you are probably familiar with the Eastern convention of putting the family name first, then the given name last. (Japanese people, at least, usually do not have middle names.) This puts prominence on the family name, which is a more important identifier than even the given name. Chances are, if you're Japanese, you'll be called only by your family name for most of your life - this includes by close friends, depending on your gender and dynamics. (Boys/Men are more likely to solely call each other by family name, whereas Girls/Women may use given names in close relationships.) Your last name will also probably give away what region you're from.

Popularity and the Top 10

Here's a quick and dirty skinny about Japanese family names:  like given names, they come in "puzzle pieces," although family names tend to go in any order. (You'll see examples of this below.) Their kanji and associated meanings are almost always natural or geographical, and denote where a family may have once lived. (In contrast, think about how many Western names come from very old professions, like "Smith" and "Baker.") There are some odd hundred-thousand possible family names in Japan, but, as you can imagine, some are WAY more common than others. To begin deconstructing family names, let's start with the top ten family names in the nation, courtesy of here:

(Please note that almost all these family names have various kanji spelling and meanings. The ones used below are just the most common ones.)

1. Satou (佐藤)  "Helpful Wisteria."
2. Suzuki (鈴木) "Bud Tree"
3. Takahashi (高橋) "High Bridge"
4. Tanaka (田中) "Middle of the Field"
5. Watanabe (渡辺) "Crossing the Border"
6. Itou (伊藤) "That One Wisteria"
7. Nakamura (中村) "Middle of the Village"
8. Yamamoto (山本) "Foot of the Mountain"
9. Kobayashi (小林) "Small Woods"
10. Saitou (斉藤*) "Adjusted Wisteria"

*This is a difficult name to translate. The first kanji essentially means "equal," "similar to," etc.

As you can see, almost all these names have to do with geographical locations and natural elements. ("What's with all the Wisteria?" you may be asking. The wisteria is a very popular flower appearing throughout Japanese history, and could be considered one of the visual icons of Japanese culture. "Tou" as a suffix appears in other Japanese names such as "Katou," and as "Fuji" in many prefixes, like "Fujiko" for a girl's name and "Fujita" for a family name.) Other geographical names including these pieces are "Yamada," (山田) "Nakayama," (中山) "Honda," (本田) and "Nakata." (中田) But of course, they don't stop there. Cardinal directions (/Kita, Minami, Nishi, and Higashi) all make frequent appearances in Japanese surnames.

Meanings of Whole Names

So now that you're familiar with both first names and last names in Japanese, we can take a look at how they affect a person's whole name! 

Remember Yuka (Gentle Aroma / 優香) and Ryota (Big Dragon / 龍太), two kids we had in our post last week? Let's pretend they're sister and brother and see what their names are like with some of the most popular surnames above!

Yuka:

1. Satou Yuka (佐藤優香) "Gentle Aroma of the Helpful Wisteria"
2. Suzuki Yuka (鈴木優香) "Gentle Aroma of the Bud Tree"
3. Takahashi Yuka (高橋優香) "Gentle Aroma From the High Bridge"
4. Tanaka Yuka (田中優香) "Gentle Aroma of the Middle Field"
5. Watanabe Yuka (渡辺優香) "Gentle Aroma Crossing the Border"
6. Itou Yuka (伊藤優香) "The Gentle Aroma of That One Wisteria"
7. Nakamura Yuka (中村優香) "Gentle Aroma From the Middle of the Village"
8. Yamamoto Yuka (山本優香) "Gentle Aroma From the Foot of the Mountain"
9. Kobayashi Yuka (小林優香) "Gentle Aroma Of the Small Woods"
10. Saitou Yuka (斉藤優香) "Gentle Aroma of the Adjusted Wisteria"

Ryota:

To save myself the typing, just take out "Gentle Aroma" from above and replace it with "Big Dragon." Bam! Done. 

Some of those meanings are kinda "what," and that's to be expected. I mean, think about us, most of us Westerners don't even have a first and last name in the SAME LANGUAGE. *ahem* But yes, sometimes choosing a name for a child is more about the syllabic sound and flow, rather than the meaning. Recently whole name meanings tend to matter less, especially with the trend of first name meanings also mattering less. 

Amount of Kanji

All the names above utilize a clean and even four kanji, which is the standard amount of kanji for any given person's name. However, this is not a rule, or even a suggestion! Five and three kanji names are also common. But in my experience, names tend to balance out to around an even four. If a surname is only one kanji, then a person's given name is likely to be three kanji long, and vice versa. Two kanji name exist, but are rare, similar to six kanji names. And since the kanji are ultimately what dictates the meaning of a name in Japanese, some parents have a lot to consider when naming a new child. 

Summation

Familiarizing yourself with Japanese family names is one of the easiest ways to learn Japanese kanji, since many of them use simple and common ones. They are also likely to tell you the long-ago origin of a family, and in the case of very rare names, can even tell you what region of the country a person is probably from. "Hasegawa" is a common name in Gifu Prefecture not often as found in other places. 

Of the ten names listed above, odds are 1/10 Japanese people have one of them. Probably more in actuality. The beauty of them is that they can be "spelled" in many different ways, just like Western names. 

From A Writer's Perspective

I both love and loathe picking out surnames for my Japanese characters. Most of them are so common that I have to be careful that two characters I don't intend to be related  have the same name, or even a name that sounds too similar. (Recently had this issue with a character who I wanted to name Nakayama, since I have another character already established with the name Nakamura.*) There's also laws to follow and consider, such as any female character who gets married is required by law to change her name to that of her husband's. (Isn't that just lovely?)

*And nobody wants to be mistaken for that guy. 

Hope you enjoyed part 2 of this series! Part 3 (and the final one) will come next week, where we'll take a look at nickname conventions! 

Japanese Naming Conventions 1, Or, Fun With "Yuka, Yuki, and Yuko.""

(Part 1 will deal with given names. Please see next week for Part 2, which will be about family names!)

To the unfamiliar ear, Japanese names may sound, well, foreign. By this I mean they're hard to remember (woe to your new Japanese friends) or just plain weird sounding. Of course, to the Japanese (and people who have been involved with the language and culture for even a short amount of time) most of them make perfect sense and may even be easy to determine the meaning of. Like with most things Japanese language related, you begin to see patterns and start to realize how mundane some names really are!

In this week's article about Japan, I'm going to take a look at typical Japanese naming conventions: their trends, their meanings, and how easy they are to get the hang of. Many names in Japanese are like literal little puzzles - they are made up of separate sounds often quashed together for certain meanings (or because they sound pretty/tough.)

It helps to have a common grasp of Japanese pronunciation and how the syllabic alphabets work before we begin. If you know absolutely nothing about "ka ki ku ke ko," I suggest you take a brief look at this awesome explanation here. It's easy, I swear!

Now that you're already familiar with the most common sounds in Japanese, let's jump in!

The Rules

Names are heavily regulated in Japan. There is a set list of kanji (symbols) parents can use to name their children. In a recently infamous case, one Japanese couple tried to name their newborn son "Akuma," which means "devil/demon." Local government basically said "No, don't. Don't even think about it." So unlike in, say, America, where you meet kids named after naughty body parts and encounter more than one "Qhriztayll" (That''s pronounced Crystal, by the way.) Japan keeps a lean and mean track of what you're naming your children. However, this doesn't mean you can only choose between Tom, Dick, and Harry. There are thousands of names to choose from...and many of them sound frustratingly alike.  

Trends and Suffixes

The easiest place to begin looking is at the trends themselves - shockingly, Japanese names, like almost every other set of names out there, follows trends in every generation. Just like we might say "Barbara" is very Baby Boomer, or "Edna" is very Baby Boomer's Mother, some names sound "old" or "very stylish" in Japanese.

Whether or not a Japanese name sounds "old" or "young" often resides in the suffix, or final syllable, in a name. Below is a list of common suffixes between girl and boy names, what they (usually, it depends on which kanji used) mean, and what generation they may be attributed to. (Please note that there are MANY more, these are just some of the MOST popular.)

Girls:

-ko (子) "Child." Often associated with older generations, with the trend tapering off in the 80s. A common source for this trend is the tradition of every female member of the Imperial family having this suffix in their name.

-mi (美) "Beauty." Like "ko," it had its heyday in the older generations, but still prevails on maybe moreso than "ko" these days. 

-ka (香) "Scent." "ka" seems to have replaced "ko" in the newer generations as the go-to "k" sound. The difference between "Yuko" and "Yuka" can be as much as taking twenty years off your age!

-na (菜) "Plant." "na" is especially a younger sounding suffix these days, and has probably the biggest amount of kanji variants on this list. Usually, I find, it doesn't mean anything and basically acts as an "empty sound." A possible origin for this suffix as a feminized name is the trend of women saying "na?" at the end of questions. (And, indeed, one of the most common kanji I find for this name suffix means "what?")

-ki (木) "Tree." "Ki" has wallowed among popular names for a while, but never started hitting bigger numbers until the current generation. Please note that instead of just "ki" the name might actually end with "tsuki," (月) which means "moon."

Now that we know five of the most common female name suffixes, let's play a little game that shows off how  "puzzle piece" like these names can get.

Let's take the name Yu(u). (優)Common girl's name on it's on. Usually it means "gentle," but, depending on the kanji it can mean almost anything. But let's go with the common "gentle" for now. Using it as a prefix, let's mash it up with all our suffixes above!

Yuko - 優子 Gentle Child
Yumi - 優美 Gentle Beauty
Yuka - 優香 Gentle Aroma
Yuna -優菜 Gentle Flower
Yuki - 優木 Gentle Tree (also Snow (雪) and, Bravery (勇気) Also doubles as a common boy's name!)
BONUS: Yuri - (百合) Lily. 

You can do this with just about any common prefix, including some of those suffixes you see above! "Mi" is a super common prefix as well. And yeah, I've seen girls named 美美. (Double the beauty, you know.)

The five names (plus one) you see above are so common, odds are that in any group of Japanese female friends you have, about half of them will have one of the names above. Now, imagine trying to run an English class full of nothing but Yukas, Yukos, and Yukis. Good times. 

Boys:

-shi (史) "History." Very popular in war-time baby names. This one has mostly died off in current generations, but still sometimes pops up now and again.


-suke (介) "Concerned With." This kanji/sound basically enhances the meaning of the prefix. Started appearing in the mid-20th century with regularity, and is now one of the more common suffixes for boys.   

-ta (太) "Big." Particularly common with two-syllable male names. Like "suke," it usually increases the meaning of the prefix. 

-to (人) "Person." Similar to "ta" in its function. It's survived a long time by keeping under the radar.

-ya (哉) "What?" Yes. You read that right. I'm guessing this is mostly an "empty" sound suffix, but let's keep looking...

Let's play another game! Meet "Ryo(u)" (龍) a boy whose name means "Dragon" for our exercise. Also a common prefix for boys...especially today! 

Ryoshi - 龍史 History of Dragons
Ryosuke - 龍介 Having to Do With Dragons
Ryota - 龍太 Big Dragon
Ryoto - 龍人 Dragon Amongst Men / Dragon-Man
Ryoya - 龍哉 What a Dragon!

Some of those names sound silly, but I've met at least one boy for every name up there...sometimes ten.

Summation

As you can see from these two brief exercises, Japanese given names are usually broken up into parts, or syllables associated with a kanji of a special (or not so special) meaning. Girl names tend to have more "fragile" meanings while boy names are more concerned with strength, size, and intellectual pursuits. (Hey! Sound familiar?) This list does not include one kanji names that may have up to three syllables. In general, Japanese given names center around a good feeling mixed with natural elements. This will be even more expanded upon next time when I tackle family names. 

From a Writer's Perspective

Part of the reason I've studied Japanese given names so much and for so long, aside from having meet thousands of Japanese people in my life (whether at school or at work), is because at the moment I'm writing mostly about Japanese characters. In order to make them as realistic as possible, I'm also taking their names into account. Do their names make sense for the generation they were born into? (Most of my characters currently were born either during war-time or the 70s!) Do they match the character? Particularly for girl names, since I mostly write about lesbians. Many masculine Japanese women drop their suffixes because they're too feminine. You'd be hard pressed to find a stone cold butch still going by "Yuko" with the kanji I provided above.

And then there's the AWFUL part! Yes, there's an awful part. With SO many Japanese women running around that need different names, you can see how easy it is to accidentally make too many characters with too similar names. Want to name a character Yuko? Too bad, I already have one named Yuri. I have to keep in mind that most of my readers probably won't be familiar with these conventions, and while I may be okay keeping track of who's who among Yuka / Yuko / Yuki (once, I was paid to!) I'm not going to expect any readers to. It creates quite the headache come time to name characters. 

How about y'all, who made it this far? Do you have any favorite Japanese names? Wanna dissect them and pick apart their meanings? Throw em at me. Should be fun!