Kunitachi was named for its location, situated between Kokubun-ji and Tachikawa. In the Edo period, this area was called Yaho or Yabo. It is said that Yaho Tenjin Shrine is the oldest Tenmangū (=Tenjin) in Eastern Japan and also known as one of the 3 greatest Tenjin in the Kanto Region, along with Kameido and Yushima Tenmangū. In Japanese, an extremely boorish person is called "yaboten" and this is also famous as a shrine which this word comes from.