阿頼度島あらいどとう Alaid

Northern Kuril Islands

Ainu spellings: Oyakobakka, Chacha kotan

The island's present name in OpenStreetMap is Атласова. The flying-island tale appears again in Torii's gloss of Yāwen at Kuril Lake (p. 61).

Location

50.8630, 155.5693 · Coordinates: OpenStreetMap Nominatim, 2026-09-11, on 阿頼度島. Open in OpenStreetMap

Referents

island The island north-west of Paramushir; Russian Атласова

Analyses

Chacha kotan

チャチャコタン ‘the old island’ proposed

chacha ‘old (Torii); Torii's Kuril word list has Chacha 'high mountain', Saru cáca 'old man'’
kotan ‘place, village’

Proponent: 鳥居龍藏 (Torii Ryūzō)

Torii's reading, motivated by the mountain's height and shape.

Evidence

documents

Torii's own Kuril word list gives Chacha for 'high mountain', which would read the name as 'high-mountain island' and fits the peak's shape more directly than 'old'.

Confidence: low

Torii's 'old' rests on Hokkaidō cáca 'old man' (Tamura 1996), while the Kuril word for 'old man' in Hattori's 1964 comparison is achabo and Torii's own Kuril list has Chacha 'high mountain'; the sense 'old' is the weaker of the two readings his material allows.

鳥居1903 p. 42鳥居1903 第六章千島地名普通單語集 (pp. 156–172), Chacha「高い山」鳥居1903 第六章千島地名普通單語集 (pp. 156–172), Kotan田村1996 cáca チャチャ【名】(お)じいさん、年配の男性服部1964 259 おじい(爺)さん: 千島 achabo

Oyakobakka

オヤコバッカ ‘(name tied to the Kamchadal)’ proposed

oyakobakka ‘(Torii: related to Oyutaru 'Kamchadal')’

Proponent: 鳥居龍藏 (Torii Ryūzō)

Torii only suggests a link with Oyutaru, the Kuril Ainu word for the Kamchadal (also Oyatāru, p. 38).

Confidence: low

A resemblance of the first syllables and nothing more; the rest of the word is unexplained.

鳥居1903 p. 42

Attestations

Alaid oral record 1903 鳥居龍藏『千島アイヌ』第二章「千島地名解」

アライドとは露人の下せし名稱にして、土人は Oyakobakka 若しくば Chacha kotan と云ふ、前者はカムチヤツカ土人を Oyutaru と云へば、これに關係ある名ならん、後者は阿賴度が海中に富士山形を呈し高く亢立するより、チヤチヤコタン即ち「老ひたる」島と稱するに至りしならん土人の傳ふる所によれば、太古この島は此處に無かりしものにして、元カムチヤツカより飛び來れり、最初アライドはカムチヤツカ半島にありて諸峰中に秀でたり、さればアライドは常に諸峯中妬みを受けたれば、後の恐れもありとて遂に此處に飛び來りしものなり、彼の飛び去りし跡は忽ち湖生じ、今日のクリール湖をなすに至れりと云ふ、この話は又ポロンスキー氏の千島志中にも記載せらる

Torii says アライド is a Russian name and that the natives say Oyakobakka or Chacha kotan; he ties the first to Oyutaru, their word for the Kamchadal, and reads the second as 'old island', from the peak's Fuji-like height. He then gives the tale that the island flew here from Kamchatka, leaving Kuril Lake in the hollow, and notes the same tale in Polonsky's history of the Kurils.

鳥居1903 p. 42

Related names

クリール湖くりーるこ — The lake on the tip of Kamchatka that the tale makes the hollow the island left behind. 鳥居1903

Sources

鳥居1903 田村1996 服部1964