Yagō, Kagō and Gō

Yagō (屋号), literally meaning "house name", is a term applied in traditional Japanese culture to names passed down within a guild, studio, or other circumstance other than blood relations.

The term is synonymous with iena (家名) and kadona (角名).

The term most often refers to the guild names of kabuki actors, but is also applicable to the names artists take from their masters or studios, names taken from one's business, and a few other similar circumstances.
The ya (屋) of yagō, also often seen at the end of a yagō name, means "house", "roof", or "shop", and helps to illuminate the origins and meanings of the term.

Yagō came to be especially well-known and widely used in kabuki theater, where actors take on a name relating to their guild. The famous actor Ichikawa Danjūrō V, though he was from the Ichikawa family, was also known by the yagō of Naritaya (Narita house), which indicates his guild within the Kabuki world.

Artists, writers and poets in Japan, like in other parts of the world, would often take on pen names or pseudonyms. These were sometimes derived from the names of their mentors (particularly in painting studios), in which case they could be considered yagō. But more often these art-names or pen names are called in Japanese kagō (家号) or simply gō (号).