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Anonymous
The term is thought to derive from the names of characters that resemble the three strokes in the Japanese kanji character for woman (?, onna); said in the order they are written: ku (?) - no (?) - ichi (?). However, this may be a modern fake etymology, as the ninja of the time wrote it as ??? (one of nine) or ?? (nine one); these transcriptions supposedly come from the fact that all humans have nine openings in common, but women have one more in addition; hence a woman is "one of nine" or "nine plus one". This however could be another fake etymology. It is also worth noting that the "???" writing requires the use of one character from each Japanese "alphabet". First hiragana, then katakana, then kanji. While hiragana and kanji can exist in the same word, katakana generally cannot appear in conjunction with the others. That is the language factor of the name's origins.
Another proposed etymology, possibly as spurious as the others, would derive the term from ? ? ("nô" : talent) ?, meaning nine talents in one person, though no creditable source lists these "nine talents".
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