On'yomi in the context of "Minamoto"

The Taira (平; Japanese pronunciation: [taꜜi.ɾa]) was one of the four most important clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian period of Japanese history – the others being the Minamoto, the Fujiwara, and the Tachibana. The clan is divided into four major groups, named after the emperors they descended from: Kanmu Heishi, Ninmyō Heishi, Montoku Heishi, and Kōkō Heishi, the most influential of which was the Kanmu Heishi line.

In the twilight of the Heian period, the Taira controlled the boy emperor Antoku (himself the grandson of the powerful Kugyō Taira no Kiyomori) and had effectively dominated the Imperial capital of Heian. However, they were opposed by their rivals the Minamoto clan (the Genji), which culminated in the Genpei War (1180–1185 AD). The five-year-long war concluded with a decisive Taira defeat in the naval Battle of Dan-no-Ura, which resulted in the deaths of Antoku and Taira leaders. Following the war, the victorious Minamoto established Japan's first shogunate in Kamakura. The name "Genpei" comes from alternate readings of the kanji "Minamoto" (源 Gen) and "Taira" (平 Hei).

The Japanese numerals (数詞, sūshi) are numerals that are used in Japanese. In writing, they are the same as the Chinese numerals, and large numbers follow the Chinese style of grouping by 10,000. Two pronunciations are used: the Sino-Japanese (on'yomi) readings of the Chinese characters and the Japanese yamato kotoba (native words, kun'yomi readings).

The word Japan is an exonym, and is used (in one form or another) by many languages. The Japanese names for Japan are Nihon ([ɲi.hoꜜɴ] ) and Nippon ([ɲip.poꜜɴ] ). They are both written in Japanese using the kanji 日本.

Since the third century, Chinese called the people of the Japanese archipelago something like "ˀWâ" (倭), which can also mean "dwarf" or "submissive". Japanese scribes found fault with its offensive connotation, and officially changed the characters they used to spell the native name for Japan, Yamato, replacing the 倭 ("dwarf") character for Wa with the homophone 和 ("peaceful, harmonious"). Wa 和 was often combined with 大 ("great") to form the name 大和, which is read as Yamato (see also Jukujikun for a discussion of this type of spelling where the kanji and pronunciations are not directly related). The earliest record of 日本 appears in the Chinese Old Book of Tang, which notes the change in 703 when Japanese envoys requested that its name be changed. It is believed that the name change within Japan itself took place sometime between 665 and 703. During the Heian period, 大和 was gradually replaced by 日本, which was first pronounced with the sound reading (on'yomi) Nippon and later as Nifon, and then in modern usage Nihon, reflecting shifts in phonology in Early Modern Japanese. In 1076, Turkic scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari in his book Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk mentioned this country as 'Jabarqa' (جَابَرْقَا). Marco Polo called Japan 'Cipangu' around 1300, based on the Chinese enunciation of the name, probably 日本國; 'sun source country' (compare modern Min Nan pronunciation ji̍t pún kok). In the 16th century in Malacca, Portuguese traders first heard from Indonesian and Malay the names Jepang, Jipang, and Jepun. In 1577 it was first recorded in English, spelled Giapan. At the end of the 16th century, Portuguese missionaries came to coastal islands of Japan and created brief grammars and dictionaries of Middle Japanese for the purpose of trade. The 1603–1604 dictionary Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam has 2 entries: nifon and iippon. Since then many derived names of Japan appeared on early-modern European maps.

Kun'yomi (訓読み; Japanese pronunciation: [kɯɰ̃.jo.mi], lit. 'explanatory reading') or kundoku (訓読; [kɯn.do.kɯ]) is the way of reading kanji characters using the native Japanese word that matches the meaning of the Chinese character when it was introduced. This pronunciation is contrasted with on'yomi, which is the reading based on the original Chinese pronunciation of the character.

Generally, kun'yomi readings are used for simple, singular words, including most verbs, while on'yomi readings are used for compound, technical words.

Go-on or goon (呉音; English: /ˈɡoʊ.ɒn/ GOH-on; Japanese pronunciation: [ɡo.oɴ] or [ɡoꜜoɴ], "sounds from the Wu region") are Japanese kanji readings based on the classical pronunciations of Chinese characters of the historically prestigious eastern Jiankang (now Nanjing) dialect.

Go-on are the earliest form of on'yomi (音読み), preceding the kan-on (漢音) readings. Both go-on and kan-on exhibit characteristics of Middle Chinese.

Kan-on or kan'on (漢音; Japanese pronunciation: [kaꜜɰ̃.oɴ] or [kaɰ̃.oɴ], "Han sound") are Japanese kanji readings borrowed from Chinese during the Tang dynasty, from the 7th to the 9th centuries; a period which corresponds to the Japanese Nara period. They were introduced by, among others, envoys from Japanese missions to Tang China. Kan-on should not be confused with tō-on (唐音, Tang sound), which were later phonetic loans.

Kan-on are on'yomi (音読み) based on the central Chang'an pronunciation of Middle Chinese. The syllable Kan is a reading of Middle Chinese: 漢 (xan) as per Japanese phonology, referring to the Han dynasty, which had Chang'an as its capital city. Furthermore, Kan (漢) has also become a description for all things Chinese, e.g., kanji ('Chinese characters').