Historical Kana Orthography - Romanization

Romanization

Readers of English occasionally encounter words romanized according to historical kana usage, in which e was typically rendered ye, in accordance with the pronunciation of the 16th through 19th centuries. Here are some examples, with modern romanizations in parentheses:

• Inouye (Inoue): a Japanese family name
• Yen (En): the basic unit of Japanese currency
• Tokugawa Iyeyasu (Ieyasu)
• Uyeno (Ueno): a place name
• Yedo (Edo): a former name of Tokyo
• Kwannon (Kannon): A Bodhisattva
• Kwaidan (Kaidan), meaning ghost story, the title of a collection of Japanese ghost stories compiled by Lafcadio Hearn
• Kwansei Gakuin University (Kansai): A university in Kobe and Nishinomiya
• Iwo Jima (Iō-jima; now officially Iōtō): An island known as the site of a battle during World War II