Asato

Japanese: variously written; the version listed in the Shinsen shōjiroku is written with characters meaning ‘morning’ and ‘door’. Another version, written with characters meaning ‘safe’ and ‘village’, is found in the Ryūkyū Islands, where it is sometimes pronounced Yasuzato. One family of this name originated in Asatsu village in Satsuma province (present-day Kogoshima prefecture), and any of four places called Asato in the RyūkyūIslands could also have given rise to the surname.