Today a Japanese name has simple structure: family name + given name, but it did not until 1870s when the government made the new family registration system.
The Ryukyans, being vassals of the Chinese empires and was influenced more by the Chinese high culture rather than that of Japanese Shintoism, have names similar in form to those of the Chinese.
In feudal Japan, names reflected a person's social status. They also reflect a person's affiliation to Buddhist, Shinto, feudatory-military, Confucian-scholarly, mercantile, peasant, slave and imperial orders.
Before feudal times, markers of clans, tribes were obvious features.
Historically, a Japanese person could maintain several names to use in different occasions.
to be continued..
