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영어

In Sekichō are found a number of cases where an identical person's name is written in different Chinese characters with the same pronunciations, and where a person's name in families and relatives is written in either Chinese characters with the same pronunciations as the Japanese name or Chinese characters with the same meaning as the Japanese name. These characteristics of transcriptions of personal names are rarely found in Ancient literature except for Kojiki and Nihonshoki, which are a different genre from Sekichō. The function of using Chinese characters with either the same pronunciations or the same meaning as the Japanese name is to clear the meanings of the Japanese names, which could otherwise be ambiguous. Sekichō also has a number of cases where the same name is used to refer to both elder and younger brothers/sisters, or both mother and daughter. This seems not functional at all because it is difficult to see who the name really refers to, but shows Ancient Japanese group identity as a community sharing blood. Sekichō also shows various ways of using Chinese characters for personal names such as nigōgana, rengōgana, tenki, and ryakki.