Why Do Japanese People Use the Kanji 塚 in their Names?


I looked up in dictionaries and found that `塚` means `grave`. Why do Japanese
people use the word `grave` in their names?(e.g. 大塚 愛) Or does this character
have other meanings when it's used in names?




塚 is actually a mound or small hill. 大塚 translates literally as big-mound. It
so happens that some graves were built as mounds, and so 塚 also came to be
used to mean grave, but I don't think it is very commonly used in that sense
now. There are a few Jomon era 貝塚 (kaizuka) around Tokyo, where the Jomon
people disposed of their empty shellfish shells in mounds.

There is a story about Taira no Masakado, a Heian Era figure who had his head
cut off in a power struggle to become emperor. He was so angry at having his
head cut off that it flew all the way from Kyoto to what is now Otemachi,
Tokyo. There it remains (supposedly) under the "Taira no Masakado no kubizuka
(平将門首塚)", a small mound with a memorial on top. According to local folk
legend, MacArthur wanted to remove it, but the men who tried suffered a
terrible fate, so it was left as it is. Rumor also has it jinxed MacArthur's
chance of becoming president.




塚 is actually a mound or small hill. 大塚 translates literally as big-mound. It
so happens that some graves were built as mounds, and so 塚 also came to be
used to mean grave, but I don't think it is very commonly used in that sense
now. There are a few Jomon era 貝塚 (kaizuka) around Tokyo, where the Jomon
people disposed of their empty shellfish shells in mounds.

There is a story about Taira no Masakado, a Heian Era figure who had his head
cut off in a power struggle to become emperor. He was so angry at having his
head cut off that it flew all the way from Kyoto to what is now Otemachi,
Tokyo. There it remains (supposedly) under the "Taira no Masakado no kubizuka
(平将門首塚)", a small mound with a memorial on top. According to local folk
legend, MacArthur wanted to remove it, but the men who tried suffered a
terrible fate, so it was left as it is. Rumor also has it jinxed MacArthur's
chance of becoming president.

