ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 859
http://www.s-gabriel.org/859
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* NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports     *
*       contain errors that we haven't yet      *
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04 May 1998
From: Jodi McMaster 

Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel!

You asked about documenting the name "Inui Nijo" as a Japanese woman's
name in the 13th or 14th century.  You also asked about armory
consisting of a red dragon with its tail entwined around a gold dorje on
a black background.

Before we start, we would like to explain the purpose of the Academy. We
try to provide expert advice on choosing and using names and armory that
are good historical re-creation. If you are not interested in having a
name that is historically accurate for your period, or if you are most
interested in registering your name, then our services may not be what
you need: You would do better to consult your local herald or the
SCAHRLDS mailing list. 

The sources for Japanese names in English are few.  We were able to find
an undated instance of "Inui" but no instances of "Nijo."  Due to the
construction of each name, both of these appear to be family names, so
they could not be combined to make one person's full name.

We did find the family name "Shijou"  used in 1332. "Shi-" (pronounced
\shee\) is the Japanese word for "four" so it would be plausible to
substitute the number "Ni" (two; pronounced \nee\) as the first part of
the name element to arrive at "Nijou" (pronounced \nee-joe\). 

We found the following given names that sound something like "Inui" that
you might want to consider, all from the year 1147: "Inu" (pronounced
\ee-noo\, where the "oo" is pronounced as in "moo"), "Inuko" (pronounced
\ee-noo-koh\) and "Inume" (pronounced \ee-noo-may\, where "may" is
pronounced like the month). [2]

In Japanese, the family name comes first, so you would put the two
elements together as "Nijou Inume," which would probably be a fine name.

SCA recreation of armory tends toward European models, and does require
non-European arms to be compatible with European. The arms you suggest
don't fit any European model, and since you are trying to create a
Japanese persona, we would suggest you look at the Japanese type of
"arms" called "mon." Mon did not use multiple colors; they were
dark-on-light or light-on-dark. Using a red dragon and a gold dorje and
a black field does not fit the pattern  (this would also violate the
general European rule of not putting color on color).  We have not found
any examples of dorje or other Buddhist paraphernalia integrated in
mon.   

We hope this letter has been helpful.  Please write us again if any part
of it has been unclear or if you have other questions.  Talan Gwynek,
Naitan de Yerdeburc, Arval Benicoeur, Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja,
Daniel de Lincolia, Teceangl Bach, Lothar von Katzenellenbogen, Zenobia
Naphtali, Walraven van Nijmegen and Ramon Diego de la Luna contributed
comments and/or research to this letter.

For the Academy,

   AElfwyn aet Gyrwum

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References:

[1] Nostrand, Barbara (as Solveig Throndardottir).  Name Construction in
Medieval Japan (Carlsbad, N. Mex.: The Outlaw Press, 1994).