Akanemaruta is asteroid #5741 and also known as 1989 XC. According to the Wikipedia (all parts agree) the Oohira Station of the Nihondaira Observatory would have by itself discovered the asteroid Akanemaruta. While the Japanese part of the Wikipedia doesn’t know an Oohira Station, the English part also explains the name as an alternative name for the Nihondaira Observatory, but in other articles than the one on the observatory it is the Oohira Station of the Nihondaira Observatory. That it could be named after an astronomer with name Oohira is a reasonable presumption, but the closest to an astronomer with this name is Oohira Takayuki (大平 貴之), who is an engineer creating planetarium projectors. He isn’t an asteroid discoverer. So if the Nihondaira Observatory isn’t already fully automatized, which is unlikely at least for the year 1989 when the asteroid #5741 was discovered, then the asteroid 1989 XC must got discovered by an unknown astronomer. Akanemaruta belongs to the asteroid-family Koronis/ Lacrimosa.

Akanemaruta is named after a Japanese girl, who lived from 1988 until 1998 and loved stars. This could explain why astronomers knew her if she often visited places, where she could gaze at the stars. The girl’s name, according to the official naming citation, was Akane Maruta and an Astronomical Observatory got named after her too. Nevertheless I can’t find anything on her! The naming citation continues, stating that Akane Maruta was killed in an accident caused by a drunk driver. The name for the asteroid was suggested by a N. Matsumoto. Although the name Matsumoto appears on a few astronomical publications, the Japanese Wikipedia knows only two baseball players named Matsumoto, while the other parts of the Wikipedia don’t know the name at all. The whole internet isn’t a big help in researching the names N. Matsumoto or Akane Maruta.

But it can’t be that an astrological force bears a name, which doesn’t reveal the task and meaning of the astrological force. Akane Maruta is an interesting name. Japanese names usually get twisted in texts in western languages, so that the name most likely is Maruta Akane. Then Maruta would be the family-name and the baseball players prove the existence of this name, although it is a very uncommon name. Maruta (丸田) is the only possible spelling. This means round rice-fields or a circle of rice-fields. Akane or written with emphasizing mark Akané is a popular female name in Japan. Because the name is originally taken from akane (茜), which means dyer’s madder (Rubia tinctorum), and the kanji for it not widely known because the Japanese have to learn only a very limited number of kanji, so Akane (アカネ) is usually written with katakana only. So the name could be Maruta Akane (丸田 アカネ). Although this is a likely variant, Akane is also the pronunciation and transcription of the family-name Akane (赤根). This would translate as red roots and simply is a more common family-name than Maruta (丸田). If Akane (赤根) is the family-name, then the personal name would certainly be Marta (マルタ), an adoption of the name Marta, which is the Romance languages’ variant of Martha, which originally is the Aramaic word for lady or mistress. The Japanese word maruta (丸太) exists too and means a piece of wood or an excorticated tree trunk, but this is very unlikely to be chosen as a name because it also has figurative meanings. The Unit 731, which made chemical and biological experiments on war captives during the Second World War, referred to its victims as maruta (丸太). The term also referred to prostitutes during the Edo-period and is in this case a disrespectful term too. So Akane Maruta is probably wrong because this looks very disrespectful, while Maruta Akane (丸田 アカネ) is most likely correct, but also a very seldom name.

Although Akanemaruta is named after a person, this asteroid however is unlikely to represent persons. Simply because persons of this name are very seldom and if they got this name, then probably because of the namesake of this asteroid. Akanemaruta belongs to the cause-of-death theme asteroids. Akanemaruta indicates that an incarnation ends by a traffic accident, where the person in question is only a passive victim. This condition is important because it is the difference to the deadly traffic accidents indicated by Banno. Akanemaruta also indicates that a traffic accident is caused by drunk driver. So Akanemaruta should be most important when conducting some astrological research on accidents. Because aka~ (赤) can besides meaning red also refer to Communists, so Akanemaruta could also represent victims of the Unit 731. This only is a subordinate meaning because it is very unlikely that it could be needed in an astrological chart. But it is in line with this astrological force representing victims, who really aren’t able to do anything against their situation.