Japanese Last Names

If you share the same last name, is there a chance that you are related to them? Yes, there is a chance. There is in fact, a figure skater named “Oda” who is said to be the direct descendant of Oda Nobunaga (a Japanese daimyo and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. 1534 - 1582). - pictures above

However, you must not forget that it wasn’t until the Meiji restoration when every Japanese resident acquired a last name. Only those of the samurai class could have their last name and commoners only had their first name until then.  In 1870, being led by the Ministry of Finance who was trying to modernize Japan, the policy for family names started to change its course. The 平民苗字許可令 (Heiminmyoujikyokarei), which was a law allowing commoners to have family names, was officially announced. However, few people opted to have a family name assuming that they might have to pay additional tax. Monks also refused claiming that they didn’t need a family name by entering into priesthood . Because of that, a law called 住職僧侶名字必称義務令 (Juushokusouryomyoujihisshougimurei), which forced monks to have a family name, was enforced in 1872. Many people took their family name from whatever they liked, some took a influential last name, others just named themselves after the location of their residents (George Takei - Bamboo Well, Yoko Ono - Small Field, for example).

My maiden name is Miura (Three Bay). There was an entrepreneur named Kazuyoshi Miura, who was accused of being involved in the killing of his wife, Kazumi Miura to receive $1 million life insurance, which was a lot of money back then. (The prolonged legal battle, lasting decades, ended when he presumably committed suicide in October 2008.) He took his wife to Los Angels for vacation, hired a hitman to shoot her in downtown, Los Angeles. Kids were calling me names because of that while growing up. Of course I had no connection with him whatsoever.   A happier info here: According to a quick research, I am either a descendant of Miura Clan who settled at Miura Peninsula (located in Kanagawa, and lies south of Yokohama and Tokyo). The Miura family (三浦氏, Miura-shi) was one of the branch families descended from the Taira Clan. They held large fiefs, and retained great political influence. They were one of the primary opponents of the Hojo family in the mid-13th century, and again at the beginning of the 16th. The Miura clan supported Minamoto no Yoritomo in the foundation of the Kamakura Shogunate (1185 - 1333), but were later annihilated by Hojo Tokiyori in 1247. However, the family name was reassigned to a supporter of the Hōjō clan, and the Miura continued to rule Miura Peninsula through the Muromachi Era (1336 - 1573) until their defeat at Arai Castle in a 1516 attack by Hojo Soun. Getting confusing here… so basically Hojo guys were my enemy, and my ancester had to do ‘harakiri’ when they lost…. not a happy ending in this info, either.

Or simply a descendant of a farmer…