Thursday, November 7, 2019

2019 Seibu Lions name translations


When watching every 2019 Saitama Seibu Lions game live, there has always been a Twitter gag we here at Graveyard Baseball have put up. Besides mentioning the lineup, we'll often add a translated lineup of the names in Japanese to English. The following below is a sample of what this looks like.



To prevent redundancy, we have 田 to paddy and 野 to field. If some guys have the same family name, we've translated their first name as a bonus. When seeing that kanji, the last name is first, first name is last.
For players with the same surname, we also translated their first name.

Italicized names are players who are not returning for 2019.

*Could be gone or outgoing

Pitchers:

Tatsushi Masuda 増田: More paddies

Tatsuya Oishi 大石: Big stone

Yusei Kikuchi 菊池*: Chrysanthemum pond/lake

Kona Takahashi 髙橋 光成: Tall bridge, Light growing

Shinsaburo Tawata 多和田: Many harmonious paddies (Note: 和 is the same harmony character that all businesses, teams and work places uses in needing to have Wa)

Ken Togame 十亀: Ten turtles

Hayato Takagi 高木 勇人: Tall Tree, Brave Person

Shunta Nakatsuka 中塚: Center mound

Shogo Noda 野田 昇吾: Field paddy, Rising Self

Katsunori Hirai 平井: Flat well

Hirotaka Koishi 小石: Small stone (pebble)

Yasuo Sano 佐野: Assistant field

Tadasuke Minamikawa 南川: South river

Ichiro Tamura 田村: Paddy village

Makoto Aiuchi 相内: Inside aspect

Keisuke Honda 本田: Book Paddy

Shota Takekuma 武隈: Warrior shadow

Tsubasa Kokuba 國場: Country place

Naoaki Matsumoto 松本: Pine tree base

Koki Fujita 藤田: Wisteria paddy

Tatsuya Imai 今井: Now well (Well as in the noun, not the adverb/adjective)

Hiromasa Saito 齊藤　大将: Adjusted Wisteria, General

Daiki Enokida 榎田: Mushroom Paddy

Sho Ito: 伊藤: Italian Wisteria

Ryuya Ogawa 小川: Small River

Kaima Taira 平良: Flat Good

Yutaro Watanabe 渡邉: Ford Edge (ford as in ferry crossing or transit, not the car).

Kaito Awatsu 粟津: Millet Harbor

Tetsuya Utsumi 内海: Inside Sea

Ryosuke Moriwaki 森脇: Forest Armpit (or side / flank)

===

Catchers:

Tomoya Mori 森: Forest

Masatoshi Okada 岡田: Hill paddy

Hitoto Komazuki 駒月: Horse moon (Interesting note that 駒 [koma] also refers to the knight piece when playing chess or another board game involving a horse)

Shota Nakata 中田: Center paddy

Shoya Makino 牧野: Shepard Field

 Masato Saito 齊藤 誠人: Adjusted Wisteria, Sincere Person

===

Infielders:

Sosuke Genda 源田: Root paddy (源 [gen] can refer to the origin or root of something)

Hotaka Yamakawa 山川: Mountain river

Takeya Nakamura 中村: Center village

Daichi Mizuguchi 水口: Water mouth

Kyohei Nagae 永江: Long bay

Haruka Yamada 山田: Mountain paddy

Kazuki Kaneko 金子 一輝: Gold child, One shine

Manaya Nishikawa 西川: West River

Ryusei Tsunashima 綱島: Rope Island

Shuta Tonosaki 外崎: Outside cape (cape as in headland, not the cloak)

 Kakeru Yamanobe 山野辺: Mountain Field Area

 Ryusei Sato 佐藤: Assistant Wisteria

===

Outfielders:

Yuji Kaneko 金子 侑司: Gold child, Assistant director

Shogo Akiyama 秋山: Autumn mountain*

Takumi Kuriyama 栗山: Chestnut mountain

Fumikazu Kimura 木村: Tree village

Seiji Kawagoe 川越: River surpass

Masato Kumashiro 熊代: Bear substitute (Fun fact: Shiro is a homophone for the color white (白). Unfortunately the kanji shows he's not a polar bear.)

Shogo Saito 斉藤 彰吾: Adjusted wisteria, Patent self

Shohei Suzuki 鈴木: Bell tree

Daisuke Togawa 戸川: Door river

[Aito] Takeda 武田 愛斗: Military paddy, Love Big Dipper (Takeda has his first name registered)

Wataru Takagi 高木 渉: Tall Tree, Ford (as in fording or crossing a river)

===

Ikusei: 

Tomomi Takahashi 髙橋 朋己*: Tall bridge, Companion self

Kaito Yoza 與座: Participation Seat

Aoi Tono 東野: East Field

Jiyu Okubo 大窪: Large Cavity (or cave in / depression).

Beware, 窪 has multiple meanings

Daichi Nakaguma 中熊: Center Bear


===

Manager and Coaches:

Hatsuhiko Tsuji 辻: Intersection

Toshifumi Baba 馬場: Horse Place

Kazuyoshi Ono 小野: Small Field

Shigenobu Shima 嶋: Island

Masahiro Abe 阿部: Corner head of Yamato Group (saw Africa for Abe's name, but too confusing)

Kosaku Akimoto 秋元: Autumn Beginning

Fumiya Nishiguchi 西口: West Mouth

Tomoaki Sato 佐藤: Assistant Wisteria

Kazuo Matsui 松井: Pine Tree Well

Hiroyuki Takagi 高木 浩之: Tall Tree, This Abundance

Kento Sugiyama 杉山: Cedar Mountain

Ming-Chieh Hsu 许: Permit

Kosuke Noda 野田: Field Paddy, Abundance of help

Satoshi Kuroda 黒田: Black Paddy

Shogo Akada 赤田: Red Paddy

Takanori Hoshi 星: Star

 Hiroshi Hirao 平尾: Flat Tail

 Eiji Kiyokawa 清川: Pure River


===

Bonus: Foreigners

As a continuous gag, we reverse translate the foreigners to see what their name in Japanese would literally look like, not just katakana sounds. Here is what their names would look like in kanji. Chinese names also included, though Hsu is listed with the coaches.  

Zach Neal ニール: Senshuken [選手権].  Neal's name has Gaelic origins meaning "Champion."  Senshuken could also mean a title besides a championship.  

Ernesto Mejia メヒア: Kyuseishu [救世主] . Mejia's name means "Messiah" or "Savior" in latin/greek origin.

Deunte Heath ヒース: Arechi [荒地]. Heath's name has English origins and refers to wasteland, or it could be a shrub.

Kyle Martin マーティン: Gunshin [軍神]. Martin is a derivative of the god Mars. Mars is also the god of war, which makes Gunshin. Surprisingly, Bushin [武神] would also be acceptable for god of war.  If we strictly refer to Mars, Marusushin [マルス神] would be the most literal as it gets. Given that Gunshin is already generic for "god of war", it made the most sense.

Fabio Castillo カスティーヨ: Shiro [城]. Castillo's surname has Latin descent for "Castle".

Chun-Lin Kuo (Kaku) 郭: Enclosure

Jen-Lei Liao 廖: Empty

Nien Ting Wu 呉: Giver

===

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