Kyōwa, Shiribeshi region, Hokkaidō
イクシユンケイワヲヘツ
いくしゆんけいわをへつ I-kosunke-iwaw-nayMatsuura notes on this journey that the unjōya and the Ainu alike seemed to be keeping something back; the Iwanai Ainu had a fishing ground up this way that the manager had forbidden them, and they asked him to say nothing of it.
Ainu spellings: I-kosunke-iwaw-nay
Analyses
i-kosunke-iwaw-nay
イコシュンケイワゥナイ
the Iwanai River that lies to me
Proponent: zenibako_trek(小樽銭函地名歴史研究会) (zenibako_trek (Otaru Zenibako Place-Name and History Society))
The guide's explanation gives the sense directly: these streams all come down from Mt. Iwao, one of them is the main Iwaonai, and one cannot tell which, so the name says the river lies about it again and again. The author reads the name against the Bira group of tributaries, where the parallel courses make the main channel hard to pick out. He takes the name as evidence that the upper Horikappu was called Iwaonai by the Ainu themselves, against the identification of Iwanai with the Unjōya River at the harbour.
Evidence
- topography
The Bira, Kami-Bira, Naka-Bira and Shimo-Bira run nearly parallel, and no one of them stands out as the main stream.
Attestations
- イクシユンケイワヲヘツ document Edo period 志利辺津日誌
イクシユンケイワヲヘツ と云よし。其故は此辺の川々皆イワヲ岳より落来るが、其中にイワヲナイの本河と云もの有れども、何れが本川か不分明なるが故に、幾度も嘘のイワヲナイと云義理のよし也。
The guide's own explanation of the name, recorded by Matsuura on the spot.
Related names
- 堀株 ほりかっぷ — The river these tributaries belong to. zenibako_trek2023
Sources
- 岩内の由来と歴史 ~硫黄の川はどこにあるのか~
zenibako_trek·2023-11-24
- アイヌ語沙流方言辞典
田村, すず子·1996
- An Ainu-English-Japanese Dictionary (including A Grammar of the Ainu Language)
Batchelor, John·1905