Meanings of Japanese place names

[ddell]

I've studied Chinese and when I was recently travelling around Japan I found the use of the Kanji in place names interesting. I think many people know that Tokyo (東京) means East Capital and Kyoto (京都) means Capital City.

You may not be aware that Mandarin speakers pronounce those cities in Mandarin : Dōngjīng (Tokyo) and Jīngdū (Kyoto). The Jīng in Tokyo is the same as the one in Běijīng (North Capital) and Nánjīng (South Capital).

Here's a few more Japanese cities with their Mandarin pronunciation (pinyin) and English meaning:

• Himeji 姬路 (Jī Lù) - "Concubine Road" (Is there a story here?)
• Hiroshima 広島 (Guăngdăo) - "Wide Island". This one's tricky because the traditional Chinese writing of the first character is 廣 and while Japanese has simplified it to 広, the Mainland Chinese have simplified it to 广. This is the same word as the guăng in Guăngzhōu (Canton)
• Osaka 大阪 (Dà Băn) - "Big Hill"

Do Japanese speakers pronounce Chinese place names (like Beijing) in Japanese or Chinese? Does anyone have any other interesting examples?

[Belton]

I think 姫［ひめ］might be one of those characters where usage diverged from the original Chinese. In English at least Princess is quite different to Concubine.
I'm not sure Japan was a polygamous society in the way China was.

[ddell]

Ah... That certainly sounds better! Thanks for clearing that up for me!

I think 姫［ひめ］might be one of those characters where usage diverged from the original Chinese. In English at least Princess is quite different to Concubine.
I'm not sure Japan was a polygamous society in the way China was.

[jiashen]

haha I just read up and found out that 西京 (West Capital) was a 陪都 in Chinese history. It's today's 西安. The term 陪都 is new to me, but basically it's a secondary capital. Not sure if there's such a thing nowadays. mmm... I always thought 西京 was Tibet or Mongolia or something. haha live and learn right?

[JonB]

Do Japanese speakers pronounce Chinese place names (like Beijing) in Japanese or Chinese? Does anyone have any other interesting examples?

No idea as I don't speak Chinese but they still call it Peking

[Bueller_007]

Generally they use Japanese pronunciations for the kanji. Exceptions are major, major cities, i.e. Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai.

[ddell]

I think 姫［ひめ］might be one of those characters where usage diverged from the original Chinese. In English at least Princess is quite different to Concubine.
I'm not sure Japan was a polygamous society in the way China was.

I'm not sure how common concubines were in Japanese history, but I have read that Japanese emporers did have them (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_of_Japan).