浜中 はまなか Hamanaka
Suttsu, Shiribeshi region, Hokkaidō
Ainu spellings: Ota-noske
The wind that the shrine was asked to soften, the dashi, now turns the turbines standing along the same shore.
Referents
- shore The middle of the beach at the head of Suttsu Bay, between Suttsu and Otasutsu; today a district of wind turbines with a wide bathing beach.
- boundary The boundary between the Suttsu and Otasutsu Ainu, later between Suttsu and Utasutsu counties, fixed at the line where Cape Benkei and Yaoi-zaki come into alignment. A shrine to Kazanagi-no-Ōkami has long stood there and served as the marker.
Analyses
ota-noske
オタノシケ ‘the middle of the beach’ received reading- ota ‘sand, sandy beach’
- noske ‘the middle of’
Proponent: zenibako_trek（小樽銭函地名歴史研究会） (zenibako_trek (Otaru Zenibako Place-Name and History Society))
Hamanaka is a Japanese name; the Ainu name was ota-noske. Names of this shape across Hokkaidō are commonly rendered 浜中 in Japanese. The position of this one is fixed exactly: the Suttsu and Otasutsu Ainu had a boundary dispute and settled it on the sightline where Cape Benkei and Yaoi-zaki overlap.
Evidence
- topography
The point is defined by a sightline: standing on the beach, Cape Benkei and Yaoi-zaki come into alignment there.
ota is a dictionary word for sand and noski for the middle of something; the compound is ordinary, and no source contests it.
Related names
- 寿都 すっつ — The western end of the same beach. zenibako_trek…
- 歌棄 うたすつ — The eastern end of the same beach. zenibako_trek…