Named in memory of Ikkansai Kunitomo (1778-1840). Born into a family of famous gun makers in the Edo period in Japan, he made several Gregorian reflecting telescopes entirely of his own design and observed the sun, moon and planets. For 14 months during 1835-1836 he made a continuous series of observations of sunspots. Name proposed by the discoverer, endorsed by S. Murayama, K. Sato and A. Fujii.