美矢ノ岬 びやのみさき Biyano
Bikuni, Shakotan, Shiribeshi region, Hokkaidō
Ainu spellings: Pirya, Piya
The cape is the one landmark of the Bikuni shore visible from the Ōgon-misaki lookout, with Cape Makka far beyond it.
Referents
- mountain Cape Biyano, the nearest cape seen from the Ōgon-misaki lookout, ending in a nose-shaped point. The kanji 美矢ノ岬 come from the triangulation point name. Marked columnar jointing lies under the water off it.
Analyses
pir-ya
ピㇼヤ ‘the whirl shore, or the shore of split rock’ proposed- pir ‘wound; whirl; shade’
- ya ‘shore, bank’
Proponent: zenibako_trek（小樽銭函地名歴史研究会） (zenibako_trek (Otaru Zenibako Place-Name and History Society))
pir covers 'wound', 'whirl' and 'shade'. The columnar jointing under the water can be read as the wound; the cape also curves sharply like a hook, so that the current turns there, which gives the whirl.
Evidence
- parallel place names
Hiroo in Tokachi once had a pointed cape and a standing rock and was pir-or 'place of the whirl'.
Tamura's pir is 'wound'; the senses 'whirl' and 'shade' and the noun ya are not verified here. The reading is put forward on the shape of the cape and the rock under the water.
pi-ya
ピヤ ‘pebble shore’ proposed- pi ‘pebble’
- ya ‘shore’
Proponent: 諸説
One of the readings the article reports without naming a proponent, beside pi-us-ya 'shore with many pebbles' and pis-ya 'shore of the beach'.
Variants
- pi-us-ya ‘shore with many pebbles’
- pis-ya ‘shore of the beach’
Objections
- The shore does not look to carry many pebbles. pis and ya are both locative nouns, which makes this use of them grammatically doubtful. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek…
pi and pis are Tamura headwords in the senses used. The article reports no proponent and raises both a grammatical and a topographic objection.
Attestations
- ヒーヤ／ヒシヤ document Edo period 旧図類zenibako_trek…