Ainu Morpheme Explorer
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Iwanai and Rankoshi, Shiribeshi region, Hokkaidō

アブシタ

あぶした Apa-usta

Abushita is a stretch of coast almost forgotten locally, with the boundary rock at its centre. The spelling アブシタ is nearly uniform across the sources.

Ainu spellings: Apa-usta, Apaushuta, Apusta, Apa-us-situ

Analyses

apa-usta

アパウㇱタ

received reading

door

Proponent: 永田方正 (Nagata Hōsei)

Nagata's entry reads 「Apaushuta アパウㇱュタ 岩戸　「アパウシタ」は戸の義なり。数仞の岩屏立して戸の如し故に名なづく。和人「アブシタ」と訛る」. Tamura's dictionary carries apausta as the word for the door or sliding screen set in a doorway, and analyses it apa-us-ta with the last element unresolved. The author identifies the rock: a flat plate of the same intrusive structure as the Makitsumi-iwa of Benkei, standing like a door. A jin is eight shaku, about 2.4 m, so 数仞 is several times that; the cliff behind is far larger than Nagata's measure and does not fit, while the plate does.

Variants

  • apusta ‘door’ — apa-usta has two vowels in sequence, so the first can be pushed out and the word heard as apusta.

Evidence

  • documents

    The standing rock is noticed in Edo-period travel writing under Japanese names: 衝立石 in the 東海参譚 of Bunka 3, 屏風岩 or 硯屏岩 in the 未曾有後記, and 屏風岩 on a Bunka-era map.

  • topography

    The rock is a flat plate standing on end, of the same dyke structure as the other three in the Raiden area.

zenibako_trek2023 「アブシタの意味」に引く『北海道蝦夷語地名解』田村1996 apausta アパウㇱタ【名】[apa-us-ta 戸口・についている・(?)] 戸（引戸、ドア、ふすま、しょうじや板戸）
Analysis details
Confidence: low

apausta is a dictionary word with exactly this meaning, the spellings across the sources are uniform, and Edo-period travellers describe a standing plate of rock at the place. The final ta is left unresolved by the dictionary itself, and a second reading of the name stands beside this one.

apa-us-situ

アパウㇱシトゥ

proposed

ridge with an inau altar on it

Proponent: 榊原正文

The Meiji topographic maps put the name at the foot of the slope a little short of the crossing towards Iwanai on the Raiden mountain road, and every source treats it as a name for a rock wall, so the reading refers it to the wall near the 687.3 m peak on the Rankoshi–Iwanai boundary. The apa is taken as the same word as the chipa (an older word for inausan, an inau altar) held to lie behind the name Abashiri, which gives an altar set up at a hard passage to pray for safe travel.

Objections

  • The Raiden mountain road has two passes: Abushita-tōge south of the hot-spring inn and Inau-tōge north of it. They are adjacent but separate, so reading Abushita too as an inau altar strains. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek2023
zenibako_trek2023 「アブシタの意味」に引く『データベースアイヌ語地名 後志1』Batchelor1905 Shitu, 山脈, 支山. A name given to mountains which protrude farther than others in the same range.
Analysis details
Confidence: low

us and situ are dictionary words; apa in the sense of an inau altar is taken from the analysis of another place name and neither dictionary consulted here carries it. The neighbouring Inau pass argues against the reading.

Attestations

  • アブシタ map Tenpō era 今井測量原図

    今井図 marks the position clearly, at the plate-like standing rock the author identifies.

  • 衝立石 document 1806 東海参譚
    イセハチトマリ　岩山の間に衝立石あり
  • 屏風岩 document Edo period 未曾有後記
    いわせとまり、こゝより嶮岨の山続く。屏風岩といふ有。形に拠っては「硯屏岩」と改め唱ふべし。

    Tōyama Kinshirō. 硯屏 is a screen, so both his names describe the same standing plate of rock. A Bunka-era map of southern Hokkaidō also writes 屏風岩 here.

  • アフシタ document Edo period 東西蝦夷場所境調書
    イワナイ　イソヤ　領境　其境目は往古はライテン岬を以て定め有候之由。其後イソヤ領シャウツ川に相定、相互に訴訟に相也候処、ユウナイの上の方は皆イワナイえ入込候間、岩内より頻に其段申出候間、後漸々アフシタと相定候由にて両所え被仰付候。

Related names

  • 亀岩 かめいわ — A small rock on the hilltop that Tōyama Kinshirō describes as a turtle, seen from a passing boat. The author looked for it and could not make it out. zenibako_trek2023

Sources