My friend Elizabeth came through with an explanation of Sanrinbou, which I wrote about on April 13th. Elizabeth's lived here for 35 years--she knows everything!

"SAN RINBOU... written with the characters for
"three" (SAN), "next door" (tonari, also pronounced RIN) and "dead"
(shinu, also pronounced BOU). part of a larger, very complicated system
of superstitions. especially bad news for building houses (thought that 3
houses to rt, left, front, back would all burn down to the ground if
built on such a day."

It sounds a little bit like my mother's cursed lasagne--every time she makes lasagne, the neighborhood suffers a catastrophe, usually a house on fire.