Hayashi

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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.