| 二本木(にほぎ)という地名は新編武蔵風土記稿(文政三年入間郡の部編集了、一八二〇年)によれば「昔村内に大木の榎二本ありし故に二本榎と呼びしを、後二本木とのみ唱へて村名となれりと云。」とあるが、榎台という小字が現在の第三小学校の南から西にかけて、日光街道と伊奈街道にまたがった位置にあることから考えると、この説が妥当のように思われる。地名の起こりについての年代は不明であるが、天正十八年六月二十四日(一五九〇年)豊臣秀吉の将、木村常陸介と羽柴孫四郎から二本木村百姓中に「小田原北条家の落人や伝馬についての注意書(入間市二本木栗原半兵衛家文書)」が出されていることから、この時点で既に二本木という地名があったことがわかる。小字の名称は概ね徳川時代の始め、慶長年間(一六ＯＯ年頃)旗本が領地を幕府から与えられた時以降つけられたと思われる。例えば長田林は旗本長田理助吉久の所領であり、山田は旗本山田権右衛門の所領である。しかし、和田のように和田義盛(鎌倉幕府初代侍所別当一二〇〇年頃)の館跡と伝えられる古い地名もある。 | The origin of the place name, 'Nihongi' (two trees), was described in 'Shinpen Musashi Fudoki-ko' (New edition of the culture and geography of the Mushashi Province Manuscript) in the part on Iruma region, edited in Bunsei 3 (1820). It stated, "A long time ago in the village there were two large Enoki (hackberry) trees, and therefore they were called Nihon-Enoki, but this was later shortened to Nihogi, which became the village name". This theory seems reasonable considering the fact that there is a Ko-aza of Enoki-dai (Enoki terrace) located from the south of the current 3rd Elementary School to the west, corresponding to the area extending over Nikko Kaido and Ina Kaido. Although the date when the place was named is unknown, it is clear that the place name of Nihogi had already existed at the time of June 24th Tensho 18 (1590) when a document, "Instructions regarding the defeated, fleeing solders of Odawara Hojo clan and the Tenma (post horses) (a document of Kurihara Hanbe'e house, Nihongi, Iruma-shi", was addressed to Nihogi Village farmers by the generals of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Kimura Hitachinosuke and Hashiba Magoshiro. The Ko-aza names seemed to have been given roughly in the early Tokugawa period, Keicho peeriod (around 1600), when Hatamoto were given the territories by the shogunate. For example, Nagata-bayashi was the territory of the Hatamoto, Nagata Risuke Yoshihisa, and Yamada was the territory of the Hatamoto, Yamada Gon'emon. However, there is also an old place name like Wada, which was said to be the remains of Wada Yoshimori's residence (the Kamakura shogunate's first 'Samurai-dokoro Betto', that is, head of the board of the military and police guard organization, around 1200 AD). |