Mizuno is asteroid #4541 and also known as 1989 AF. Mizuno was discovered by Suzuki Kenzō (鈴木 憲蔵) and Furuta Toshimasa (古田 俊正) at the observatory in Toyota-shi (豊田市), Aichi-ken (愛知県), Japan. Mizuno has a natural satellite, that is until now only known as S/2015 (4541) 1. Besides this Mizuno is a common Main Belt Asteroid (inner region).

Mizuno (#4541) mustn’t be confused with Mizuho (#2090). To emphasize this is the main reason why I treat Mizuno here. While Mizuho is named after the daughter of Urata Takeshi (浦田 武), Mizuno is named after the Japanese astronomer Mizuno Yoshikane (水野義兼), who usually collaborated with Furuta Toshimasa (古田 俊正). They for example discovered together the asteroid #5908, that is also known as 1989 UF and named Aichi after the Japanese prefecture, where Toyota City is located.

Mizuno (水野) means water-field, watery fields. It would, if it would be a place name, most likely denote a wet landscape. While –ta (田) is a cultivated field, –no (野) can mean a cultivated field or just mean outdoors. The family names of anime characters end often in –no (野) because this is a homonym with the grammar particle no (の), which indicates a genitive and permits thus a variety of puns. So is Mizuno the exact family name of Mizuno Ami (水野 亜美), who is better known as Sailor Mercury or, more Japanese, as Seeraa Maakyurii (セーラーマーキュリー). She is one of the five original Inner Sailor Guardians of the Solar System and these are the team of Sailor Moon in the manga and anime “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon”. The name Ami (亜美) can refer to Sailor Mercury being the second Sailor Guardian introduced (and would in this case have to be translated as “the second beauty”, although other translations are possible). Her powers are based around water and ice, as well as intelligence and computers. She is Ami “of the water”, hence her family name has to be Mizuno!

I’m glad that I can now really explain something with the help of an anime. The Star Sign of Sailor Mercury or Mizuno Ami (水野 亜美) is Virgo. The obvious reason for this is that because Virgo is ruled by Mercury. Sailor Mercury’s intelligence and computer skills are also obvious as an effect of Mercury. Sailor Mercury’s connection with water is due to the Japanese name for Mercury, which is suisei (水星). This name literally means “the water star”. Because Mizuno (水野) is a genuinely Japanese name, so a connection between this name and hence also the asteroid #4541 can’t be denied. If more would be public on the Japanese astronomer Mizuno Yoshikane (水野義兼), then this would of course have priority in analyzing the meaning of the astrological force Mizuno. But this isn’t the case. So here can be said with certainty that Mizuno is a mercurial asteroid, just as lunar, solar, venereal, or martial asteroids also exist and emphasize certain facets of the major astrological forces.