Japanese Female Names 133 



refer to calligraphy, the matchless calligra- 

 phy of the Far East, rather than to anything 

 that we should call "literary beauty." 



LITERARY NAMES 



O-Bun " Composition." 



O-Fude "Writing-Brush." 



O-Fumi .... "Letter." 



O-Kaku .... "Writing." 



O-Uta "Poem." 



Names relating to number are very common, 

 but also very interesting. They may be loosely 

 divided into two sub-classes, names indicating 

 the order or the time of birth, and names of 

 felicitation. Such yobina as Icbi, San, Roku, 

 Hachi usually refer to the order of birth; but 

 sometimes they record the date of birth. For 

 example, I know a person called O-Roku, who 

 received this name, not because she was the sixth 

 child born in the family, but because she entered 

 this world upon the sixth day of the sixth month 

 of the sixth Meiji. It will be observed that the 

 numbers Two, Five, and Nine are not represented 

 in the list : the mere idea of such names as O-Ni, 

 O-Go, or O-Ku seems to a Japanese absurd. I 

 do not know exactly why, unless it be that they 



