|
< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 5 OF 5 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
Apr-17-25
 | | jnpope: I went with 横山 富吉 法文 as the audio sounds correct and 法文 was previously given as a legitimate name (do middle names go in the middle?). |
|
| Apr-17-25 | | stone free or die:
<<beat> Put not your faith in Google Translate!> So we're learning. <<jn> What would be the "best" representation of "Hobun" then?> Hobun. |
|
Apr-17-25
 | | beatgiant: <jnpope> We're discussing an alternate name, not a "middle name." Middle names aren't a thing in the structure of Japanese names. We've seen the following examples of Hobun in a real person's name:
奉文
芳文
豊文
I personally wasn't sold on the 法文 theory, but who am I to argue? The person who proposed it sounds more qualified than me. I suggested 寶文 above in the same vein, and I can find examples of people with this name, albeit Chinese and not Japanese. As I've said above, there's no way to resolve this a priori. We need a new source such as a Japanese document referring to him by this name, or an English one that describes details about the name. |
|
Apr-17-25
| | jnpope: <z>, I'm heading in your direction on this... I've stripped out the Japanese from his bio until we actually see his name given in a Japanese source (seems safest given the numerous variations and combinations of characters used). I've updated the PGN in both games to be "Hobun Tomikichi Yokoyama" being that he is literally given as <Hobun T. Yokoyama> upon his arrival in the US (<Kansas City Times>, 1905.11.08. p5) and was still being given as <Hobun T. Yokoyama> in his last mentioned lecture in the US (Knoxville <Sunday Journal and Tribune>, 1916.10.08, p6). I'm keeping his English biography name as <Rev. Dr. "Hobun" Tomikichi Yokoyama>. I know <Tomikichi Yokoyama> is the documented name in the 1901 Canadian census and in his 1905 border-crossing documentation into the US. So "Hobun" is probably just a nickname, but I'd really like to see a birth certificate or some Japanese documentation (perhaps a passport or exit visa from Japan) before I write more than speculation into his bio. |
|
Apr-17-25
| | jnpope: One last tidbit of data, he was apparently from the city of Shimoda in the Shizuoka Prefecture if anyone gets a chance to do any additional digging. |
|
| Apr-17-25 | | stone free or die: <<jn> I've stripped out the Japanese from his bio until we actually see his name given in a Japanese source (seems safest given the numerous variations and combinations of characters used).> Did you look at the sources I cited on his Korean career? (I provided English translations, but they were originally in Japanese) |
|
| Apr-17-25 | | stone free or die: <"Hobun Tomikichi Yokoyama" > thumbs up. |
|
Apr-17-25
| | jnpope: <I provided English translations, but they were originally in Japanese> Can you re-post the link to a source along with a page number? |
|
Apr-17-25
| | beatgiant: I checked <stone free or die>'s Google books source above cited in Tomikichi Yokoyama (kibitz #55), searched for 横山富吉, and got three hits: p338 横山富吉や、戦時中の配属将校工藤重雄も静岡県人であった p340 横山富吉は,静岡・東京で中学時代までを過ごした後カナダに渡り p348 横山富吉近藤英三吉川義弘・柴山昇な•どアメリカ留学経験者が多かったことが The latter two specifically mention the trips to Canada and US to study, and I would take this as definite proof that 横山富吉 is correct for his official name. |
|
Apr-17-25
| | jnpope: Great! Re-added the Japanese form of his name (less the "Hobun"). |
|
Apr-17-25
| | jnpope: <With that being said, there are some rare exceptions for when Japanese people might have a middle name. This tends to be the case for people who have adopted different names for their religion (see also ‘The 4 Most Common Religions In Japan‘), or if their field of work requires it. Many people who work on publications may be required to add a middle name or initial to their name in order to differentiate their work from someone with the same first and last names.> https://justaboutjapan.com/do-japan... Ok, so authors tend to take on an additional name to make them uniquely identifiable. Which may explain Yamashita's "pen name", although I don't see any cases of all three names being used simultaneously. I wonder if Yokoyama took on a third name for a similar reason? |
|
Apr-17-25
| | beatgiant: <jnpope> It's a valid point, while living abroad a Japanese person might adopt a different name form intended to be easier for locals to pronounce. <Yamashita's "pen name"> Are we still talking about General Yamashita? It's off topic at this point, but I see no great case for the alternate names for him, even after studying the source you found from the Stanford Hoover Institution. I detailed the flaws in that source above: the phonetics in the original source had clear errors, and the English translation didn't follow those anyway. |
|
Apr-17-25
 | | NewspaperChessArchiv: <<jnpope>: I finally found some government documentation (US and Canada!).> 1901 Census of Canada has this
Name Tomikichi Yokoyama
Birth 25 Mar 1882 Japan
Residence 1901 British Columbia, Canada
Fifth name down on list.
https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewe... |
|
Apr-17-25
| | jnpope: https://www.encyclopedia.com/people... Was the source claiming Hobun was his pen name. Just made me curious if he actually wrote anything which would tie into the justaboutjapan.com's article. |
|
Apr-17-25
| | beatgiant: <jnpope> But "Hobun" and "Tomoyuki" look the same in written Japanese, namely 奉文, so it doesn't really make sense to call it a "pen name" (generally an alternate written name). It's a possible alternate pronunciation, but I can't find any historians who believe that in the case of General Yamashita, a very high profile individual about whom all the details are well documented. |
|
Apr-17-25
| | jnpope: Given the dual pronunciations you found I'm 99.9% convinced that you are correct. I just like to remove all loose ends. |
|
Apr-18-25
| | beatgiant: <jnpope> Then I'll give you one last piece of info about Gen. Yamashita. Here's a WorldCat entry for his book 農村と國防 (The countryside and national defense): https://search.worldcat.org/title/1... He did not use a pen name, but the catalog gives yet a third reading of 奉文, "Tomobumi" just to show how confused things can get when translators deal with Japanese names. "Fumi" is indeed a possible reading of 文 but I don't think it's the right one here. |
|
Apr-18-25
| | jnpope: I wonder if his death is mentioned in any Methodist church documents; he appears to have been an influential missionary for that religion. Did he live out the rest of his life on the Korean peninsula or did he return to Japan later in life? |
|
Apr-18-25
 | | Stonehenge: Is he mentioned here?
https://catalog.lib.kyushu-u.ac.jp/... My Japanese is a bit rusty. |
|
| Apr-18-25 | | stone free or die: <(The real) Stone> - yes, it looks like a casual mention of him was made, just once, as an attendant at a tea party. The document's title page:
<Kyushu University Institutional RepositoryYanagi Kaneko's performances and the folk art movement in Korea Ko, Insuk
Graduate School of Human-Environment Studies, Kyushu University: Research Assistant> So it's a description of him in Korea.
I'd triangulate the date of the tea party as somewhere in the vicinity of 1925-6. (I've just used google tranlate for all this, gain of salt and all that) |
|
Apr-18-25
| | Stonehenge: It's about the singer Yanagi Kaneko (1892-1984). <Kaneko became a lecturer at Doshisha Women's College in May, and also served as a lecturer at Kyoto Prefectural First Girls' High School.
The Doshisha Centennial History records the Yanagi couple's footsteps as follows: "Vocalist Yanagi Kaneko (wife of Muneyoshi) was appointed in 1925 (Taisho 14)" (23).
Doshisha was a missionary school, and Western missionaries and Westerners who majored in music worked together, creating an atmosphere in which Western music was deeply rooted. With Yanagi Kaneko joining this wonderful musical environment, musical activities became more active.> |
|
| Apr-18-25 | | stone free or die: I'm not sure if this is findable - but his <dod> is really the only essential bio info missing (beyond non-chess items like marriage and children). He's still quite young in 1925, and we don't know if/when he returned to mainland Japan. |
|
| Apr-18-25 | | stone free or die: RE: <Kaneko Yanagi> There's a youtube stream by <Kaneko Yanagi · Michio Kobayashi> featuring a Japanese alto vocalist playing semi-Japanese/Western music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpq... Posted as a curio, and example of what such music might sound like. |
|
May-13-25
| | NewspaperChessArchiv: I discovered this response dated May 05, 2025 trapped in my spam folder: Re: FW: Ask The UMC form submission
Your request was forwarded to me. I have not yet located information on the chess player, Tomikichi Yokohama, in GCAH Collections (https://catalog.gcah.org/) but have found that he was sponsored by The Methodist Protestant Church and attended Kansas City University and Westminster Theological Seminary. GCAH holds very little archival material related to this antecedent denomination. The newspaper article: https://www.emmitsburgchronicles.co... reports that he will return to Japan (in 1910) as a missionary of the MP Church. I will check MP Annual Reports for any reference to him. Best regards,
Frances Lyons |
|
May-13-25
| | NewspaperChessArchiv: From the PDF news item, it's on the last page.
The Carroll Record, Taneytown, Maryland, Saturday, May 07, 1910 Theological seminary commencement. Westminster, Md., May 3.
[...]
Hobun Tomikichi Yokoyama, a graduate of Kansas City University, who will return to his native country, Japan, as a missionary of the Methodist Protestant Church. |
|
 |
|
|
< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 5 OF 5 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
Kibitzing
