When it comes to Japanese names, it's quite complicated, but essentially his name is 上原浩治, which if changed to phonetic hiragana, is うえはら こうじ (note that family names come first in Japanese writing). If you change this to English characters (romaji) using what's called kunrei-shiki, it's u-e-ha-ra ko-u-ji. So the u is correct. Kunrei-shiki was developed for Japanese speakers to better-show Japanese grammar and pronunciation, and it can be kind of confusing for non-Japanese speakers. Technically it's the legal romaji, though it's not always used even by Japanese governmental offices.
However, in Hepburn romanization (which is made to help westerners properly pronounce Japanese syllables), the -o+u has become combined to make an -ō. Thus jou becomes jō, rou becomes rō, and kou becomes kō. Technically, the US cards should say Kōji Uehara. And Ichiro's name is really Ichirō. But typing the ō isn't that easy, so they usually just use o. So, they're both right, kind of.
Another notable example of this is Tokyo. 東京 is とうきょう (to-u-kyo-u). But we don't write Tōkyō, though some signs in Japan do have this.
I tried to be as simple as I could, though something like this is just really complicated! I'm considering turning this into a whole post of its own at some point.
More of these cards also courtesy of Dan's generosity.
ReplyDeleteI totally meant to link to you, especially because your scans are so much better!
DeleteThose cards are hard to scan!
DeleteVery cool card. Did the Giants misspell his first name or did Topps and MLB misspell his name all of the years he played in the US?
ReplyDeleteNo.
DeleteWhen it comes to Japanese names, it's quite complicated, but essentially his name is 上原浩治, which if changed to phonetic hiragana, is うえはら こうじ (note that family names come first in Japanese writing). If you change this to English characters (romaji) using what's called kunrei-shiki, it's u-e-ha-ra ko-u-ji. So the u is correct. Kunrei-shiki was developed for Japanese speakers to better-show Japanese grammar and pronunciation, and it can be kind of confusing for non-Japanese speakers. Technically it's the legal romaji, though it's not always used even by Japanese governmental offices.
However, in Hepburn romanization (which is made to help westerners properly pronounce Japanese syllables), the -o+u has become combined to make an -ō. Thus jou becomes jō, rou becomes rō, and kou becomes kō. Technically, the US cards should say Kōji Uehara. And Ichiro's name is really Ichirō. But typing the ō isn't that easy, so they usually just use o. So, they're both right, kind of.
Another notable example of this is Tokyo. 東京 is とうきょう (to-u-kyo-u). But we don't write Tōkyō, though some signs in Japan do have this.
I struggle with foreign languages... but I think I kinda get it. Truly appreciate you taking the time to write out this information.
DeleteI tried to be as simple as I could, though something like this is just really complicated! I'm considering turning this into a whole post of its own at some point.
Delete