Yamashiro Family History

Japanese: written 山城 ‘mountain castle’. It is taken from the name of the main province of the three which now comprise Kyōto prefecture. The placename originally meant ‘behind the mountains’ (yama no ushiro) and described the position of the place relative to the more ancient capital city of Nara.

When Emperor Kanmu moved the capital there in 794 he changed the second element to its present meaning. Some other families have taken the name from other places with the same name.

The surname is mainly found in western Japan and the Ryūkyū Islands where it is pronounced Yamagushiku.

It is listed in the Shinsen shōjiroku as 山背 ‘behind the mountains’.