History Kainan City birthplace of Suzuki surname

What's in a name: Kainan in Wakayama Prefecture is branding itself as the birthplace of the "Suzuki" surname carried by some 1.76 million people in Japan.

For centuries, travellers making the pilgrimage to the three great Kumano shrines — Hongu Taisha, Hayatama Taisha and Nachi Taisha — have passed through the city of Kainan in Wakayama Prefecture. The city is also said to be the birthplace of the surname Suzuki, now carried by around 1.76 million people across Japan. Today, the name — Japan's second most common after Sato — is at the heart of efforts to breathe new life into Kainan. Locals and supporters are working on projects such as restoring a historic mansion tied to the Suzuki family line.

Two years ago, the Suzuki Yashiki was rebuilt within the shrine's wooded grounds. "Our hope is for this house to become a kind of home for everyone who shares the Suzuki name," explained 35-year-old Yoshinori Nishioka, the shrine's chief priest.

The Suzuki name is said to have originated when the family of a priest from the Kumano region settled near the shrine and called themselves Suzuki during the Heian period (from 794 to the late 12th century). Later Suzukis spread Kumano worship around the country, and their surname spread along with it. The mansion where successive heads of the Suzuki family lived fell into ruin after it was abandoned in 1942 when the family came to have no successor. In 2013, some participants in the seventh "Suzuki summit," a gathering of Suzukis from across the country that was held in Kainan that year, called for the restoration of the dilapidated mansion.

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Donations were solicited mainly from Suzukis nationwide, and about ¥87 million was raised. Major automaker Suzuki Motor Corp. also made contributions. With a total of about ¥200 million in funds, including public subsidies, the mansion's tatami-mat hall, entrance building and a pond-and-garden landscape from the late Muromachi period (1336-1573) were restored.



It is believed that there are about 300,000 surnames in Japan.