母衣月 ほろつき Horotsuki
Suttsu and Shimamaki, Shiribeshi region, Hokkaidō
Ainu spellings: Poro-tuk-i, Poro-tuki
The meaning of Horotsuki is not settled.
Referents
- mountain Mt. Horotsuki, the highest peak in the middle of the Tsukikoshi range between Suttsu and Shimamaki.
Analyses
poro-tuki
ポロトゥキ ‘big cup’ received readingProponent: 既存の地名解 (the current explanations)
tuki is a cup for sake, so the readings that take this route see the mountain as an upturned cup, or Suttsu Bay as a cup filled to the brim.
poro and tuki are both dictionary words, and the reading rests on a resemblance between a landform and a drinking vessel, with no record behind it.
poro-tuk-i
ポロトゥキ ‘place that juts far out’ proposedProponent: zenibako_trek（小樽銭函地名歴史研究会） (zenibako_trek (Otaru Zenibako Place-Name and History Society))
tuk-i stands in the place-name dictionary as 'knoll', and the author takes it to carry the sense of tuk 'grow out, extend': a place that shoots up. The whole Suttsu peninsula is seen that way, and the highest point in it was called poro-tuk-i. Tsukikoshi, the name of the range, means the crossing over Mt. Horotsuki; the pass from Mikawa in Shimamaki over the Tsukikoshi moor down to Kuromatsunai is well made up today, and Matsuura's sketch shows the older route coming down towards Yaoi instead, which may have passed near the summit.
poro and tuk are dictionary words in the proposed senses. The author states that the meaning of the name is unsettled, and the reading rests on how the peninsula is viewed, with no recorded form behind it.
Related names
- 月越 つきこし — The range between Suttsu and Shimamaki, named for the crossing of Mt. Horotsuki. zenibako_trek…