Fujisawa Hideyuki/ Discussion

BillSpight: Fujisawa pronounces his name, Hideyuki. However, he has become known as Shuko in the West, as well as by many in Japan. Shuko is the Chinese-style pronunciation. The shu character is the same as the one in many Honinbo names, such as Shuwa, Shusaku, Shusai, Shuei.

DaveSigaty: I think it is fair to say that he is best known as Shuko in Japan. He also regularly uses Shuko in his book titles, for example:

• Shuko no Sekai (this 6 volume set is even copyright Shuko Fujisawa)
• Shuko Ryuu Kono Itte (this one is copyright Hideyuki Fujisawa)

On the other hand when the Yomiuri Shinbun published the games from the first five Kisei matches (that earned him the title of Honorary Kisei - Meiyo Kisei), they titled the book Fujisawa Hideyuki Meiyo Kisei e no Michi :-)

DrStraw: If the two are alternative pronunciations of the same Japanese characters how is it possible for the Yomiuri to indicated which reading is meant? Surely they do not add the furigana.

Bob McGuigan: Probably they did what is common practice in Japanese books and used furigana on the official publication information page, usually at the end of the book.

Bill: How do you tell the difference in the book title? The Kanji characters are the same, only the reading differs. I learned the pronunciation from the place in the back pages of his books that give the author's name. There the characters are accompanied by syllabic characters (furigana) that indicate the pronunciation. I have a couple of what I always read as "Hideyuki Ryuu" books, myself. :-)

DaveSigaty: I do the same as you, Bill. In probably half the Japanese books I own the pronunciation of the kanji (title, author, etc.) is indicated at the back in the copyright notice. The rest do not give that information. The books above all indicate the title pronunciation with furigana.

Rafael Caetano: Dave, just because it's written Shuko at the back of the book it doesn't mean that Fujisawa himself chose so, does it? That said, when I bought his tesuji dictionary, I asked for "Fujisawa's dictionary" and the bookseller asked, "Ah, Fujisawa Shuko?". Which got me a bit confused.

Dave I assume he picked which name his copyright would be under. The publisher may have influenced the title although it is difficult to believe they would have overridden his choice. At the same time if the publishers are pushing him to use Shuko, it shows what title sells better :-)

Bill, FWIW, I asked Dr. Nakamura. As Dave, he says most people call him Shuko in Japan, to the extent that some might not even know that his real name is Hideyuki. (not that you said to the contrary)

Bill: I seem to recall a similar conversation with him when he was here. :-)

I am reminded of these lines from the Beatles' Rocky Racoon:

 Her name was McGill,
 And she called herself Lil,
 But everyone knew her as Nancy.

Bob McGuigan: Actually Fujisawa was not given even the name Hideyuki by his parents. His given name in 1943, for example, was Tamotsu (I think, not sure of the reading). Shuuko is clearly a "professional" name. I have heard Japanese pros who know him personally refer to him by that name. Usually it is just Shuuko, without the Fujisawa. In book titles I would guess it should be Shuuko Ryuu ... rather than Hideyuki Ryuu because Shuuko identifies him whereas Hideyuki does not.

Bill: After Dr Straw's recent question, virtually all the information in this discussion is on the parent page. Can we delete this discussion as redundant?

Dave: I would have thought the opposite - clean up the duplicate main page "discussion"