[masaegu]

The three kanji in question is the name of the owner of that bucket, the first two representing his family name and the last his given name. I'd refrain from typing how it's pronounced because it is an existing person's name. In Japan, people don't donate buckets to temples...never. Temples have much more money than most 'people'!! It's only customary for families to keep their own buckets and utensils at the temples where they have family graves so that they can go and clean the graves at times. And since this has to do with death, people are not willing to lend /borrow these utensils. All the other buckets in the picture also have individual names painted on them. The rarity of this person's family name, however, may well have confused laurel. It would many other Japanese, too.