Higashi or Azuma? One Kanji, Two Names — Epoche A2
At my part-time job in Osaka there is a Mr 東. For two months I called him Higashi-san, because 東 is "higashi", east - the first reading of that character anyone learns. He always answered me kindly. Then the manager called him Azuma-san, and my mistake became clear. The same character is both names. Nothing on his name badge says which one is his. My teacher's answer to this story was surprising: there was no way to know. Many family names have two or three possible readings, and given names are freer still - 裕子 can be Yuko or Hiroko, and only the family knows which. Japanese people cannot read an unfamiliar name with confidence either. They ask. "How do you read your name?" is an ordinary, polite question here, not a strange one. That explains the thin extra line printed above the name box on every form in Japan, marked furigana. Each person writes the sound of their own name there in kana, next to the characters. The bank and the city office then file people under the sound, not under the characters - because the characters alone do not settle it. Last week a second 東 joined the shop. This time I asked first. She is a Higashi.