Tonight’s story is another tale about romance and ghosts, although it’s not a horrific one like many that we’ve seen. Instead, this ghost story sets up an interesting false etymology for the Japanese surname Nikurube. This surname is particularly difficult to read in Japanese, and causes a lot of confusion for people who don’t know how it is read. In some rankings it is said to be the #1 most difficult name in Japanese.
There are a few different ways to write Nikurube, but one of them is 釋迦牟尼佛. Normally, those kanji are read “Shakamuni hotoke” — the name of the Buddha. Yet by some odd way, when used as a name they came to be pronounced Nikurube.
The story gives an entertaining name for why the name of the Buddha came to be a family name, but it doesn’t explain how the pronunciation actually changed from Shakamuni hotoke to Nikurube. This is also an interesting story. There are many titles and epithets used for the Buddha, buddhas, bodhisattvas. One of the common ones is Nyōrai (as in Amida Nyōrai). All of the buddhas collectively can be referred to as “the nyōrai group” or nyōraibu; -bu in this case being a suffix meaning “group.” Nyōraibu is written with the kanji 如来部. If you use an alternate pronunciation for each if the kanji in nyō-rai-bu, you get ni-kuru-be.
So, the pronunciation of the name Nikurube comes from the kanji for one of the Buddha’s epithets, but is written with the kanji for the actual name of the Buddha. It is spelled completely different from how it sounds. No wonder it’s confusing to so many people!
The Origin of the Surname ‘Nikurube’
In Nihonbashi, Edo, there was a wealthy merchant named Yorozuya Hanbei. Every year he would travel to Kyōto to make purchases, and he would stay at an inn run by a widow and her daughter. The daughter had beautiful features, and Hanbei was drawn to her and reached out to court her. She had already held affection for Hanbei for some time, and, their feelings mutual, she told her mother everything. She and Hanbei fell deeply in love with each other.
One day, Hanbei said to the girl, “My home is in Edo, and wouldn’t it be better for both you and your mother to move to Edo and live a comfortable life? I will go there first and make all of the arrangements, and then I will send for someone to bring you here. How does that sound?”
The girl was delighted and said, “I have been thinking the same thing for some time now. And, if you can’t wait until next year, I’d like to travel to Edo with you, and spend every morning and evening together.”
Hanbei was happy to hear this, but he first returned to Edo by himself. Perhaps exhausted from the journey, he fell ill upon returning home, lost track of time, and forgot about returning to Kyōto to pick up the girl.
Not knowing this, the girl waited impatiently in the capital for Hanbeti’s late arrival, and thought of nothing but him morning and night. Perhaps it was due to her worry piling up, but she soon fell ill, and finally she died. Her mother was devastated.
Meanwhile, back in Edo, Hanbei remembered the girl and thought that she must be waiting impatiently for him to come get her. He wondered how she was doing, and fondly remembered his time in the capital.
“Is this Yorozuya Hanbei’s place?” a voice asked. Hanbei looked up and saw that it was his fiance from the capital.
Hanbei was overjoyed. “Well now, how is it that you have come here? It’s like a miracle!” he said, and the two of them could not hold back their tears.
The girl lamented Hanbei’s lateness and spoke her grievances, and Hanbei made various excuses; but in the end he calmed her and welcomed her inside, introducing her to his entire family as his new wife.
“Now then, let us send for your mother in the capital to come here as well,” said Hanbei.
The girl stopped him, saying, “First let us wait two or three years.”
Hanbei didn’t see any reason to argue, and so the months and years passed. Before long, the girl became pregnant, then gave birth to a fine baby boy. When the boy was three years old, the girl’s mother came from the capital to visit Hanbei, who was delighted to see her.
The widow, sobbing, said, “Well now, just looking at you I get all choked up. It’s been three years since my daughter, whom I gave to you and who waited and waited for you to come for her, died of heartbreak when you never showed up. Since she died, I have had nobody to support me. It’s been getting harder for me to scrape by, and as you have always been a compassionate man, I thought that if I came to Edo to ask for your help you would never abandon me. So here I have come. Please help me, as you would have helped my daughter.”
Hanbei replied, “What a strange thing you say! Your daughter came down here three years ago, and now we even have a three year old child. Look, here is your grandson!” And he showed her the child.
The widow was astonished, and replied, “Then I’d like to see my daughter.”
Hanbei took her inside, but the daughter, refusing to see her mother, hid herself in the closet. When Hanbei opened the closet to speak with her, the girl was nowhere to be found; instead, there was a grave tablet. Hanbet showed the tablet to the window, who burst into tears.
“So, she was so devoted to you that her spirit came here to live with you for three years! How incredible!” cried the widow.
She withdrew a grave tablet from her breast pocket and held it next to the one Hanbei was holding. On both tablets, “Shakyamuni Buddha” was written in the same handwriting. Hanbei was also moved to tears. He performed funerary services for the girl, and he made sure that the girl’s mother was provided all that she wished for.
The child grew into a young man of superb looks and intelligence, and the provincial governor at the time heard about him and took him as an employee. Hanbei’s family name was Ōtomo, but this child was born of a ghost, so the name “Shakyamuni Buddha” which was written on the grave tablet had its reading changed, and the boy came to be known as Nikurube San’ya. Since then, this family name has been handed down from generation to generation.