Hi, it’s Junko from Japan. In NARUTO, Jiraiya’s last name has stayed unknown. It’s not only for Jiraiya but some characters don’t show their last names either. For example, Ninjas from the Land of Wind such as Gaara and Temari don’t have family names. It may be the culture of the Land.
Let’s back to the topic of Jiraiya. I think the reason why he doesn’t have a last name is related to the origin of the Legendary Three Ninjas: Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru. They’re all called by their first names only.
All their names come from the old Japanese novel in the Edo period of Japan, titled JIRAIYA GOKETSU MONOGATARI (the tale of gallant Jiraiya). This title showed up in Naruto Shippuden episode 133, and it’s clearly based on the existing novel.
What Is The Tale of Gallant Jiraiya?
The Tale of Gallant Jiraiya is an entertainment novel published in the mid-1800s. The main character is JIRAIYA. He’s a skilled Ninja and summons a monster frog. He defeats monsters and bandits with his NInja techniques. After that, he married a woman of unsurpassed beauty named TSUNADE who controls a monster slug KATSUYU. They fight together to beat a villain OROCHIMARU who casts evil snake techniques.
I have the original novel book I found in a Japanese antique market. Here are some Ukiyo-e illustrations of Jiraiya from the real book in the Edo period!
That’s completely the same as the Legendary Three Ninjas in NARUTO! (though Jiraiya and Tsunade didn’t marry). The Tale of Gallant Jiraiya is a Japanese novel, but the characters are fictional and they don’t have last names. I think NARUTO simply followed it.
As for Tsunade, she’s a grand daughter of the first Hokage, Senju Hashirama, and her full name may be Senju Tsunade.
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Read More: Naruto Characters Names: A Guide to Meanings and Origins
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I am a translator of premodern Japanese currently working on an English translation of the first 14 volumes of The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya.
I just wanted to comment on the thing about Jiraiya’s last name in the original books. Jiraiya is not his real name. It is an alias he uses while he is trying to revive his clan, the Ogata. His real name is Ogata Shuma Hiroyuki, so in a sense you could say that his last name is Ogata.
The original books play it a bit fast and loose with his name at times though, sometimes refering to him as Jiraiya Hiroyuki or Jiraiya Shuma, or really any mixture of his four names.
Concerning Tsunade, for the most part of the text she goes by the name Otsuna and only really introduces her real name Tsunade when she is about to get into a fight. She is actually also a distant descendant of the Ogata clan, so you could argue that her last name could also be Ogata.
She did however grow up on a poor farm in Konoha village (yes, that one is from the original books) so you could say she is a farmer and therefore doesn’t have a last name.
Orochimaru is the son of Matsuzaki Tamanosuke (his father) and Orochi (his mother) who is a sort of serpent god. At birth, he was given the name Tamakichi, and when he was later placed in a monestary, he was given the name Emiwaka (smiling youth) – but the monks called him Hebiwaka (snake youth) behind his back.
Later he went evil and then took the name Orochimaru after his mother, and started his evil rampage.
So, you could argue that Orochimaru’s last name is Matsuzaki, but I think it might be a bit of a stretch.
Neither Orochimaru or Tsunade are ever refered to by their “potential” last names, so I think we can say they don’t have one.
Check out my twitter for news on the translation here: https://twitter.com/Jiraiya_News
Hello, Andreas! Thank you so much for your professional comment! I’ve never read such impressive and deep insights! Are you going to publish the English edition of Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari? It must be quite a challenge to translate all the volumes, but I hope you’ll accomplish it.
Hello Junko ^_^
Currently, my plan is to publish the first 14 books out of the total 43. I have already finished translating the books I intend to publish, now I just need to edit them, which will also take some time. Whether or not I translate more books, will depend on how well the first one does, and how much time I have for translating.
I chose to only do 14 books for two reasons:
1: I only have so much time for this, as I also work a full time job.
2: If I end up translating the whole series, it feels right to split it into three parts, as it is mainly about three characters ^_^
Just the first 14 books make up around 360 pages of text, and with all the illustrations, the final book will be at least 500 pages long.
If I did all the 43 books in one translation, it would be over 1500 pages long O_O
Hi Andreas! Thank you for your reply. I understand why you’ll release 14 books first. The whole series is too long to publish all at once. Actually, I guess it’ll take a long time for readers to finish reading all 43 books. So your decision makes sense!
I’ll follow your Twitter to catch up on the update. Looking forward to the first release as one of Jiraiya’s fans!