濃昼 ごきびる Gokibiru
Hamamasu-ku, Ishikari, Ishikari region, Hokkaidō
Ainu spellings: Pon-kipir, Pokin-pir
The name is among the best known of the hard-to-read place names of Hokkaidō, written 濃昼 and read Gokibiru. Its readings turn on a single question of transmission: whether the nasal in the Edo-period spellings belongs before the k, as in Pokinpiri, or after it, as in Ponkipiru. The Inō large map, the Matsuura maps and the government survey sheets all descend from Mamiya Rinzō's survey or from Nagata's place-name work, so they do not count as independent witnesses.
Location
43.4805, 141.3926 · Coordinates: OpenStreetMap Nominatim, 2026-09-10, on 浜益区濃昼. Open in OpenStreetMap
Readings in the place-name tables: ポキンピリ Pokin-pir
Referents
- settlement A fishing village inside the U-bend of the coast road, formerly divided between Atsuta and Hamamasu villages. The Gokibiru River still divides Atsuta-ku from Hamamasu-ku.
- river The Gokibiru River. A waterfall stands about two kilometres above the check dam, and the tributary names point to it.
- cape The cape north of the village, which Matsuura Takeshirō and the Imai survey map both identify as Gokibiru Point. The cliff there is listed among the Ishikari heritage volcanic landforms and is hyaloclastite.
Analyses
pokin-pir
ポキンピㇼ ‘the whirl below; the shade below’ received reading- pokin ‘the lower, the one below’
- pir ‘whirlpool; shade’
Proponent: 上原熊次郎 (Uehara Kumajirō)
The received reading, carried on the information panel at the Airōdo Atsuta roadside station as 'the lower whirl' or 'the lower shade', in the sense of a ravine. Uehara glosses both elements as 'shade' and explains the name as the shade of several capes. Matsuura repeats him and adds, from the guide Shirikato, that the water whirls between this cape and the cape in Atsuta territory. pir is 'wound' in ordinary use; the small dictionary of place-name Ainu also gives 'whirlpool, eddy' and 'shade'.
Objections
- No parallel toponym of the shape pokin-pir is known. The distance from Pokinpiri to Gokibiru is hard to judge either way, and neither sense settles into a description of the place. The Hokkaidō government survey sheet that writes ポキンピリ川 follows Nagata's place-name work, so it is not independent support. Of the two Edo-period spellings with a nasal, Mamiya's map has honki, and the author reads the Inō map's hokin as his pupils' misreading of it. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek…
pokin is a dictionary word; the pir of this reading is a separate word from the pir 'wipe', and the Saru dialect dictionary gives pir only as 'wound'. The senses 'whirl' and 'shade' come from the small dictionary of place-name Ainu. The reading is the oldest on record, and its documentary support after Uehara runs through sources that copy him.
o-kipir
オキピㇼ ‘the cliff rising from the river mouth’ proposed- o ‘at the river mouth, at the lower end’
- kipir ‘cliff rising sheer from the water's edge’
Proponent: 榊原正文
kipir is a cliff standing sheer at the water's edge. Rikibiru in Tomamae is ri-kipir 'high cliff', so the element has parallels.
Variants
- ho-kipir ‘cliff rising from the water's edge at the river mouth’ — The same proponent's alternative with ho-.
Evidence
Objections
- The prefixes o- and ho- attach to verbs, and kipir is a noun, so the reading has no verb. Supplying one, as in o-kipir-us-i 'the place where a cliff is at the river mouth', would be grammatical, though the author has so far seen no old record spelling the name Okibirushi. If the original had been ho-kipir the name could be heard Hokibiru, never Pokibiru or Bokibiru; Ainu makes no distinction between k and g or between p and b, but it does distinguish h from those, and the surviving ゴキビル and ポキンピリ show that a voiced stop was there. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek…
kipir has a parallel in Rikibiru and suits the landform, but the reading leaves the prefix without a verb to attach to.
poki-piru
ボキビル ‘the plunge pool where the falling water seethes’ proposed- poki ‘below it’
- piru ‘water falling and seething’
Proponent: 『浜益町史』
The town history: 'it is also called Bokibiru; boki is the plunge pool, biru the seething of falling water. There is a waterfall on the upper Gokibiru River, called Bokibiru, and the name became Kokibiru by corruption.'
Objections
- poki as 'below it' is a dictionary word, but 'water falling and seething' for biru is unclear; the word for boiling up is pop. That there really is a waterfall upstream can be seen from the tributary names. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek…
poki is a dictionary word; the second element is not identified with any dictionary word.
pon-kipir
ポンキピㇼ ‘the smaller cliff at the water's edge’ proposed- pon ‘be small’
- kipir ‘cliff rising sheer from the water's edge’
Proponent: zenibako_trek（小樽銭函地名歴史研究会） (zenibako_trek (Otaru Zenibako Place-Name and History Society))
The reading rests on Mamiya Rinzō's ショーウシホンキヒル, so-us-{pon-kipir} 'the Gokibiru River that has a waterfall'. The author reads the hokin of the Inō map as the pupils' misreading of Mamiya's honki, and the Pokinpiri of the government survey sheets as descended from that misreading through Nagata. Ponkipiru then became Gokibiru and the name passed to the settlement and the river. The referent is the cape north of the village, which both Matsuura and the Imai survey map identify as Gokibiru Point; Akaiwa Point to the south rises like a mountain, and against it the northern cliff is the smaller one. The author adds that Akaiwa may have been poro-kipir 'the larger cliff at the water's edge', without having heard it so called.
Evidence
- parallel place names
Rikibiru in Tomamae is ri-kipir 'high cliff'. Both are an intransitive verb followed by a noun, a shape with no grammatical difficulty.
- 力昼（苫前町） ri-kipir
- ri ‘be high’
- kipir ‘cliff at the water's edge’
- 力昼（苫前町） ri-kipir
- documents
Mamiya's river map gives ショーウシホンキヒル for an upper tributary, the nasal standing after the ho. Matsuura, working from that map, writes ショーウシホンコキヒル with a ko inserted, and adds a ホロ tributary his diaries do not mention. Reading the source spelling as pon-kipir also explains how the Pokinpiri reading could arise.
- so ‘waterfall’
- us ‘be there, be attached to’
- topography
The cliffs seen from Gokibiru fishing harbour are considerable. The cape north of the village, against Akaiwa Point to the south, is the smaller of the two. A waterfall stands about two kilometres above the check dam on the Gokibiru River, which matches the so-us of the tributary name.
- morphological pattern
Ainu does not distinguish k from g or p from b, so Gokibiru and Kokibiru are one and the same. Very few Hokkaidō place names of Ainu origin begin with a voiced velar, and Kotan and Kotoni are not heard as Gotan or Gotoni, which leaves the ゴ of Gokibiru to be accounted for. Ainu does distinguish h from p and b, so a form in ho- could not yield Pokibiru or Bokibiru, while a shift from po- to go- is available.
pon is a dictionary word and the shape follows Rikibiru exactly. kipir itself is absent from the Saru dialect dictionary, so its sense rests on Rikibiru and on the place-name literature. The reading turns on one tributary spelling in Mamiya's map being the source of the whole later tradition, and the author's own reservation about the cliff's size stands.
Attestations
- こきひる document 1670 津軽一統志
The author takes it for the earliest occurrence, with a hedge. Most Edo-period maps and records have ゴキビル or, with the voicing left out, コキヒル.
zenibako_trek… - ゴキンビル document Edo period 蝦夷地名考并里程記
ゴキンビル 夷語ポキンピリなり。則、蔭の蔭なりといふ事。扨、ポキンとは蔭の事。ピリも亦、蔭と申事にて、此所数カ所の崎の蔭なるゆへ、字になすと云ふ。
Uehara Kumajirō, apparently the first source for the Pokinpiri reading.
zenibako_trek… - ゴキビル／ホキンビリ document Edo period 天之穂日誌
ゴキビル 名義、水渦巻といへる事なり（シリカト申口）／またホキンビリにて、則ち蔭のまた蔭といふ儀なりと。此辺岬の蔭なるを故に號るか。／此所此岬とアツタ領の岬の間にて水の渦巻が故に號くとかや。
Matsuura Takeshirō quotes Uehara and adds a whirlpool reading he attributes to the guide Shirikato. The author notes that this diary carries many doubtful glosses for the Ororon coast, possibly the guide's own guesses set down as heard. Matsuura states here that Gokibiru Point is the cape north of the village.
zenibako_trek… - ホキンヒル map 1821 伊能大図
Inō Tadataka never travelled the west coast of Ezo; this stretch was drawn by his pupils from Mamiya Rinzō's survey.
zenibako_trek… - ショーウシホンキヒル map Edo period 間宮河川図
Mamiya Rinzō's river map names an upper tributary of the Gokibiru River. The nasal falls after the ho: honki.
zenibako_trek… - ショーウシホンコキヒル／ショーウシホロコキヒル map Edo period 松浦山川図
Matsuura, working from Mamiya's map, gives two tributary names. The author reads the first as Mamiya's ホンキヒル with a ko inserted, and the second as an addition of Matsuura's own, since the diaries record no tributary with horo.
zenibako_trek… - ポキンピリ川 map c. 1892 道庁実測切図
The Hokkaidō government survey sheets follow Nagata's place-name work and write the name as Nagata read it.
zenibako_trek… - ゴキヒル document 1857 入北記
此山道四ヶ所小憩漸くしてゴキヒルと云ふ所に至る。是迄はアツタ領にてヤソシケより二里弐十四丁と云ふ。
Tamamushi Sadayū, crossing the newly cut Gokibiru mountain road from Yasoshike.
zenibako_trek…
Related names
- 力昼 りきびる — ri-kipir 'high cliff' in Tomamae, the parallel that carries the element kipir. zenibako_trek…
- 赤岩岬 あかいわみさき — The cape south of the village, a sheer cliff that rises like a mountain. The author raises poro-kipir 'the larger cliff at the water's edge' as a possible name for it, without attestation. zenibako_trek…
- 毘砂別 びしゃべつ — The other large U-bend of the coast road, north of Gokibiru and near the Hamamasu town centre. zenibako_trek…