Family name origins & meanings
- Japanese : meaning ‘(one who lives) under a tree’; the surname is found throughout Japan and the Ryūkyū Islands. The most famous bearer of this name, Kinoshita Tōkichi, used several names throughout his career and is best remembered as Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the brilliant general who unified Japan at the end of the 16th century. It is doubtful, however, that anyone named Kinoshita is his descendant.