Re: Outlaws of the Marsh
If you can get your hands on a copy of Outlaws of the Marsh you'd be in luck. While these names are not particularily japanese, all of the characters in this book are martial arts folk heros in China.
They're "not particularly Japanese" at all. As you point out, they're Chinese. That's like recommending a Swedish phonebook for Italian names.
Japanese names (and words in general) are typically many syllables, all following the pattern of vowel, consonant-vowel, or consonant-vowel-N/M: Yamasaki, Fujiyama, Haichiman, Raiden, etc. ("Ch" and "Ts" are each considered one consonant.) There's no "L" (use "R" instead), and certain combination don't exist: "Di" becomes "Ji", "Ti" becomes "Chi", etc.
Chinese names (and words in general) are typicaly very short, often one syllable, and are distinguished from one another by tonal differences between the vowels -- differences we westerners generally can't hear. Chinese names might include: Chin, Cheng, Wang, etc.
Notice how completely dissimilar Japanese and Chinese names are, like Swedish and Italian.
This book is mainly about all different renegade warriors and fighters that travel around and eventually get together. There are oodles of neat character archetypes.
Yes, definitely. It's a classic.
