Tomeno is my Japanese name. Unusual name. I found another like it only once in my life, a long time ago, on a newspaper page that reported the death of an elderly woman.
This name of mine was a laughing stock when I was a teenager, because it sounds like words in Portuguese that don't match a person's name.
And my name was also mistaken as a surname, so some of my sisters also called Tomeno!
I am the seventh female daughter and my father, as he only had one male child, named me Tomeno so that I would be the last daughter. Someone said that the name comes from the Japanese word tomeru , which means “to stop”. It didn't work, because after me three more daughters came.
But, according to my father, the name Tomeno originated from TOMEKITI, the name of an uncle of his who was an example of a son, and KANENO, the name of his mother – he said that this name was very beautiful. So, my name became like this: TOME + NO = TOMENO.
More recently, I learned that women in samurai times had this type of name ending in “no”. It was, therefore, a noble name. If this is true I don't know.
All I know is that my father was a man who raised the Japanese flag until the end of his life. He said how wonderful Japanese women were and that revolted me! How can a Japanese woman be better than us Nikkei?
During World War II, Japanese people in Brazil were prohibited from speaking Japanese. My father was put in jail a few times for speaking Japanese with his fellow countrymen. At that time, my brother-in-law named Yutaka was a boy and knew that you couldn't talk in Japanese. So he invented a game to talk out loud with his friend Yuzo. In a corner of the hill, someone shouted: YUZO! (I'll talk!) and the other replied: YUTAKA? (You spoke?)
After the war, I believe, it was forbidden to register children only with their Japanese name. That's why I received the name Tomeno, which was my father's wish, but preceded by Rosa.
I was born and raised in a city considered “the most Japanese in Brazil”. That's why I didn't suffer much for being of Japanese descent. On the contrary, it was the non-Nikkei who suffered rejection from the Nikkei.
I have heard that Nikkei who lived in other cities suffered a lot. And as I said before, Japanese names can sound like Portuguese words that cause embarrassment and discomfort. Living outside of Japan, we have to think before giving our children a Japanese name.
But I really like my name Tomeno, much more than Rosa.
© 2014 Rosa Tomeno Takada
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