Japanese Take in Kazuo Ishiguro as Their Own

choi

Chang-Ran Kim, 'Who's Kazuo Ishiguro?' Japan Asks, but Celebrates Nobel Author as Its Own. Reuters, Oct 6, 2017.
https://www.reuters.com/article/ ... s-own-idUSKBN1CB0FZ

Mote:
(a) in Japan: "it was undoubtedly Japanese-sounding, but written in the local script reserved for foreign names and words [katakana, as opposed to kanji and/or hiragana]."
(b) "The Sankei daily boasted: '(Ishiguro) follows Yasunari Kawabata and Kenzaburo Oe as the third Japanese-born writer' to win the prize."
(i) Yasunari KAWABARA 川端 康成 (1899 – 1972 (suicide by gassing himself, but left no will behind); Nobel prize in 1968)
Japanese-English dictionary:
* そば (側,傍)(P); そく(側); はた 《側(P); 傍; 端》 (n): "near; close; beside; vicinity; proximity; besides"

そば, そく and はた are pronounced as "soba," "soku" and "hata," respectively. )The "hata" pronunciation is softened to "bata" when the kanji was not at the beginning of a compound word.
(ii) Kenzaburō ŌE  大江 健三郎
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenzaburō_Ōe
(1935- ; Nobel prize in 1994)

(c) Japanese names:
(i) surnames:
(A) Mary Sisk Noguchi, An Introduction to Japanese Names for Japanese as a Second Language Learners from Non-Kanji Using Backgrounds. Meijo University, 2003
www.kanjiclinic.com/introsurnames.htm

Quote: "Estimates of the number of surnames currently used in Japan vary widely, from 100,000 to 300,000, depending on such factors as whether or not slight variations in pronunciation (eg: 'Nakajima' and 'Nakashima,' written with the same kanji) are counted separately. These are astronomically high figures, especially when one considers the number of family names used in two neighboring countries, China and South Korea. 520 million people in China (nearly half the total population) share a mere ten surnames, all of which are written with a single character. In South Korea, an estimated one-half of the nation’s population shares four of 225 available names [citations omitted] * * * While some commoners--who formed over 95% of the population of Japan--possessed family names before the dawn of the Meiji Era (late 1860's), these names were not officially registered. When ordered by the government to register a moniker, many households who did not already possess one chose the name of a nearby town, river, or other place name. * * * The relatively small number of families who had Imperial connections throughout the centuries preceeding the Meiji Era had already been bestowed with official surnames.

The author name indicates with maiden name Mary Sisk, she married a guy whose surname is 野口.
(B) Japanese name
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_name
(section 3 Customs)
* "Denbei 伝兵衛, the owner of Sagamiya, would be Sagamiya Denbei"

相模屋食料株式会社 Sagamiya Foods Co, Ltd was founded in 1951 as 相模屋豆腐店. (The store name was after Sagami Province 相模国.)

SAGAMIYA Denbei was a fictional character in the 1957 Japanese film 幕末太陽傳.

There was a real personage named 相模屋 政五郎 SAGAMIYA Masagorō (1807-1886), who was a 侠客.
* Isuke, son of Genbei

Osuke can be 猪介/伊佑 (or 伊介)/亥輔 (or 亥介)/衣介/維介/井介 (or 井祐), among other kanji. The Japanese pronunciation for 猪 is "i."  Many other kanji represents (Japanese pronunciation) suke 助.

The given name Genbei may be 源/玄/厳/弦/元 兵衛, among other kanji, all of which shares the same Chinese pronunciation.
(ii) given names:
(A) The pronunciations of "kazu" and "sabu" for kanji 一 and 三, respectively, are exclusively used in (Japanese) names. See
Victor Mair, Sino-Japanese. Language Log, July 2, 2016
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=26549
("A single character almost always has at least two readings, a Chinese style reading and a native Japanese style reading, and usually it has multiple Chinese style readings and often several Japanese style readings. What is even more agonizing is the fact that many kanji have special readings reserved only for names")

三郎 is always pronounced "Saburō" -- never "Sanrō."
(B) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_name
("Male names often end in -rō (郎 'son,' but also 朗 'clear, bright;'  eg 'Ichirō') * * * or contain ichi (一 'first [son];'  eg 'Ken'ichi'), kazu (also written with 一 'first [son]' ")


(d) "The country similarly celebrated with gusto the 2014 Nobel Prize co-winner in physics, American Shuji Nakamura 中村 修二 [1954- ; professor at Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara; 2014 Nobel prize (1/3): all three laureates for invention of blue light-emitting diodes (LED), despite his having abandoned his Japanese nationality years ago. Japan does not recognize dual citizenship for adults."

Upon announcement of Nakamura receiving Nobel, Prime Minister Abe sais: ノーベル賞中村氏は日本人, whereas Japanese embassy in Washington stated that according to Japanese law, he lost Japanese citizenship the moment he acquired US citizenship. He himself in Japanese said he obtained US citizenship in 2005 or 2006 ("２００５、６年ごろに（米国市民権を）取ったんですよ").
(e) "Hiroyuki CHIDA [秘書室 室長] 千田 宏之 at Hayakawa Publishing 株式会社早川書房 [1945- ; based inTokyo]"