Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • Japanese : in the Tōkyō area and the Ryūkyū Islands, the name is written with characters meaning ‘bamboo hat’ and ‘well’. In western Japan, and in the name of a village east of Tōkyō, it is written with characters meaning ‘west of the river’, and this latter is pronounced Kawanishi by some. Other variants exist as well.