Hayashi

Origine et histoire

Hayashi means simply 'forest' (林) and is one of Japan's oldest and most straightforward topographic surnames, borne by families who lived near or worked in woodlands. The character 林 appears in Chinese-influenced Japanese writing from at least the Nara period. The Hayashi clan produced prominent Confucian scholars in the Edo period, most notably Hayashi Razan, who served five successive shoguns as a leading intellectual.