is a

Japanese surname Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

meaning "golden castle". The

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

used to write this surname may also be read Kinjō in ''

on'yomi , or the Sino-Japanese vocabulary, Sino-Japanese reading, is the reading of a kanji based on the historical Chinese pronunciation of the character. A single kanji might have multiple ''on'yomi'' pronunciations, reflecting the Chinese pronuncia ...

'' or Kanagusuku in the

Okinawan language Okinawan (, , , ), or more precisely Central Okinawan, is a Northern Ryukyuan languages, Ryukyuan language spoken primarily in the southern half of the Okinawa Island, island of Okinawa, as well as in the surrounding islands of Kerama Islands, K ...

pronunciation. The former reading often indicates Okinawan origin, and the latter reading always does. Okinawans in

mainland Japan is a term used to distinguish Japan's core land area from its outlying territories. "Mainland Japan" was an official term in the pre-war period, distinguishing Japan proper from its overseas territories (外地, ''gaichi'', lit. "outer lands ...

with those two surnames sometimes change its reading to Kaneshiro without changing the characters. The surnames Kaneshiro and Kinjo are also found in the pass names of

Koreans in Japan () are ethnic Koreans who immigrated to Japan before 1945 and are citizens or permanent residents of Japan, or who are descendants of those immigrants. They are a group distinct from South Korean nationals who have immigrated to Japan since t ...

, formed by adding a second character to the common Korean surname Kim and then pronouncing the new name using Japanese rather than Korean reading. People with the surname Kaneshiro include: * Charles Y. Kaneshiro (1938--2002), an American politician *, Japanese rugby union player *, Japanese sumo wrestler of Korean descent *, Japanese author of Korean descent *, Japanese manga artist *, Japanese-Taiwanese actor and singer of Okinawan and Taiwanese descent People with the surname Kinjō include: *, Japanese ten-pin bowler from Okinawa *, Japanese baseball player of Korean descent *, Japanese theatre actor from Okinawa *, Japanese football midfielder (J2 League) from Okinawa *, Japanese football midfielder (2. Bundesliga) from Okinawa

References

{{Surname Japanese-language surnames Okinawan surnames