襟裳 えりも Erimo
Erimo, Hidaka region, Hokkaidō
Ainu spellings: Enrum
One of the few Hidaka names the article leaves as it stands.
Location
41.9244, 143.2494 · Coordinates: OpenStreetMap Nominatim, 2026-09-10, on 襟裳岬. Open in OpenStreetMap
Referents
- cape Cape Erimo, at the end of the Hidaka range. It is not the southernmost point of Hokkaidō, Hakodate lying further south, and the cape is known for its wind
Analyses
enrum
エンルム ‘cape’ received reading- en ‘protruding’
- rum ‘head’
Proponent: 定説
The author supports the reading: enrum is the word for a cape, broken down as en-rum 'protruding head'. The Ainu n is weak and appears and disappears, which covers Erimo beside Enrum. A reading erum 'mouse' is current; the author takes it as a chance resemblance of sound. He adds that the elm grove at Hokkaidō University is named from English elm and has nothing to do with the name.
enrum is a dictionary locative noun for the tip of something and the landform is plain. The further split into en and rum is the author's, and the article cites no dictionary for either element.
Eremu-not
‘Rat cape’ proposed- Eremu ‘rat’
- not ‘cape’
Proponent: John Batchelor
Batchelor's reading and gloss as printed in 1905; the segmentation is his, and several of its elements answer to no dictionary headword.
Related names
- エンルムとエントモ — Names of both shapes occur across Hokkaidō and both name capes. The article separates them: an enrum stands out sharply, an entomo hardly looks like a cape on the map. Etomo at Muroran is read enrum by the received explanation, which the author rejects on the same ground as Horoizumi. zenibako_trek…