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"Ono-Sendai: in the book this is a Japanese corporation that manufactures cyberdecks. In Japanese “Ono” means ax and “Sendai” is the name of a prefecture in Japan."

Ono (斧) is indeed ax in Japanese, but is also a common surname. (The name is written differently, as 小野, no relation to axes.) Being a company name, it sounds more natural to interpret it as a surname rather than a weapon.



Non negligible possibility: the "ax" is also the traditionally identified root for labyrinth - 'labrys' intending the "double-edged axe", and "labyrinth" the "extended, intricate palace under the symbol for power".

This may suggest (were it intentional from Gibson) the "matrix" as a futuristic labyrinth under the same symbol of power. (You - presumably - accessed the labyrinth through a portal with the labrys, and you access the matrix through a portal with the "ono".)


For Gibson, a cyberdeck is mythologized as a guitar, and electric guitars are called axes.


Also, Sendai is a city, not a prefecture.




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