How can 池仲 be read as 'ikenohata' in the seal 'Ō Ikenohata Jōkin', 大池仲上金? Doesn't 仲 = 'naka'; can it be 'hata'?

Question

If Ō Ikenohata Jōkin is written as 大池仲上金, how can 池仲 be 'ikenohata'? 池 is ike, but 仲 is usually naka? Can 仲 -- and presumably its homonym 中 -- also be read as hata (はた)? Am I missing something?

Context: I was looking at a mid-19th century publisher Jōshūya Kinzō, 上州屋金蔵: the academic text I was referencing indicated that he used an Ō Ikenohata Jōkin seal, 大池仲上金, during 1837–1848. I also came across a ukiyo-e print and found a variation seal, 大池中上金, and can only assume that since 仲 and 中 are homonyms (naka, なか) then the second seal would also be read as Ō Ikenohata Jōkin.

Jōshūya Kinzō's address in Edo was Shitaya Ikenohata Nakamachi-dōri, 下谷池之端仲町通. I have found a publisher’s address cartouche Shitaya Ikenohata, Jōshūya Kinzō han, 下谷池之端上州屋金蔵版. In these two instances, Ikenohata uses the expected character hata, 端.

This is a little confusing. Given my earlier examples, how does 仲 and 中 represent the hata in Ikenohata? I've gone through a few dictionaries and references but none shed light on this usage.

Wiktionary gives 中 the following readings:

Go-on: ちゅう (chū, Jōyō); じゅう (jū, Jōyō, uncommon)

Kan-on: ちゅう (chū, Jōyō); じゅう (jū, Jōyō, uncommon)

Kun: なか (naka, 中, Jōyō); うち (uchi, 中); あたる (ataru, 中たる)

Nanori: あたり (atari); あつ (atsu); あつる (atsuru); かなえ (kanae); かなめ (kaname); ただし (tadashi); とうる (tōru); とおる (tōru); ひとし (hitoshi); みつる (mitsuru); わたる (wataru);

and for 仲:

Go-on: じゅう (jū)

Kan-on: ちゅう (chū, Jōyō)

Kun: なか (naka, 仲, Jōyō).

Any observations appreciated.

Answer 1

I think there's a collection of contractions here that are making things confusing. :)

Jōshūya's address gives us a hint: 下谷池之端仲町通. Looking up 池之端 on the JA Wikipedia, we see that 池之端仲町 appears to have been a somewhat distinct place name -- this is listed independently in both the Edo and Meiji period lists of place names related to 池之端, lacking the 下谷 prefix. Notably, 池之端仲町 could be abbreviated to just 池仲, using the common Japanese abbreviation practice of taking the first kanji of each constituent part. I suspect this is the same as the second and third characters in the seal name.

According to the JA Wikipedia page for this publisher, Jōshūya also went by the abbreviated spelling 上金. I suspect this is the same as the last two characters in the seal name.

We're left with the 大 on the front.

• There's a possibility that this is also a first-character abbreviation, perhaps of 大江戸. That said, I cannot find any instances of "大江戸池之端仲町", which would be the probable expanded version of 大池仲 as an abbreviation.
• Alternatively, if the seal were large, or just larger than other seals used by Jōshūya, that might be all this meant -- the big seal, as opposed to the small one. Personally, I suspect that this is the more probable explanation.

Putting this all back together, we have:

• 大 - "big"
• 池‍之端‍仲‍町 → 池仲 - from the address.
  The Ikenohata reading here would apply to the full expanded spelling. 池仲 as-is would notably not be read as Ikenohata, so matching up the hata reading with the 仲 kanji is a mistake.
• 上‍州屋‍金‍蔵 → 上金 - from the full name.

This kind of mismatch, where a reading from a fuller expression appears to be applied to an abbreviation where the kanji no longer line up well with the reading, isn't terribly common from what I've seen, but it's also not unknown.