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Latest comment: 12 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion
What's the source on her personal name? Every source I've looked at says that it has been lost to posterity. Limeatine (talk) 02:17, 20 January 2009 (UTC)Reply
"Lost to posterity" is a little grandiose. It is more likely she had never had an official, recorded given name. In the Japanese medieval period, and at least into the early Edo period, women were not granted surnames (neither were commoners), and though I haven't read of an official policy, from my own studies of Japanese women in history, it does not appear that they had officially recorded personal names, either. At least, not at birth, though if she became a nun (for example) the convent she entered might record her new Buddhist name. In some cases, women in history were notable enough that their names appeared frequently in letters or court records; in other cases, a personal name or nickname might be recorded at the Buddhist temple after death, along with the Buddhist posthumous name. See examples such as Murasaki Shikibu, Komatsuhime, Lady Saigo. Boneyard90 (talk) 14:31, 3 August 2011 (UTC)Reply