中目黒
Nakameguroなかめぐろ
middle black-eye — the middle of three Meguro villages
- 中naka — middle (of Upper, Middle and Lower Meguro)
- 目me — eye (probably phonetic, not literal)
- 黒kuro — black (probably phonetic, not literal)
The characters read 'black eye'. Nobody knows why — the ward lists four theories, mentions others, admits none is proven. Its page says the 1961 ward history leaned toward horse and paddy-ridge. The valley is real either way.
Meguro writes as 'black eye', which is probably not what it means. The ward government's own page lists four competing theories, notes that others exist, and then says plainly that none of them can be confirmed. According to that same page, the ward's 1961 history leaned toward a horse-country reading: me for a horse, kuro for the raised path between paddies — nothing to do with eyes or the colour black. Another reading takes me as hollow and kuro as ridge, which would make the name a description of exactly what you are standing in: the valley the Meguro River cut, with high ground on both sides. The characters were probably chosen for sound.
Modern proof
The ward's own website lists the theories and then declines to pick one — a local government publicly admitting it does not know where its name came from.
sourceThe Meguro River runs northwest to southeast through a valley, with plateau ground rising on both banks. Nakameguro was the middle of three Meguro villages.