イセバチ いせばち Isebachi
Iwanai and Rankoshi, Shiribeshi region, Hokkaidō
Ainu spellings: Iso-pake, Esohake
Isebachi is the Isoya end of the Raiden coast, where the mountain road came down.
Location
42.9074, 140.3935 · Coordinates: OpenStreetMap Nominatim, 2026-09-10, on イセバチ川. Open in OpenStreetMap
Referents
- cape Sebachi-bana, the cape at the Isoya tunnel; the initial イ has dropped for reasons unknown. 鼻 and 岬 mean the same thing here.
- shore Isebachi-tomari, the inlet between the Katanakake and Isoya tunnels; the Isebachi tunnel once stood north of it. The name has all but vanished. 松浦図 gives it as the foot of the Raiden mountain road on the Isoya side; Tamamushi Sadayū instead calls that foot 浜スマイ.
Analyses
iso-pake
イソパケ ‘head of the rocky shore’ proposed- iso ‘rock in the sea, reef’
- pake ‘head’
Proponent: zenibako_trek（小樽銭函地名歴史研究会） (zenibako_trek (Otaru Zenibako Place-Name and History Society))
Read from Matsuura's エショハケ, perhaps describing the point at Sebachi-bana. The author qualifies it: in his experience iso most often refers to a rock standing in the sea, and no conspicuous offshore rock is to be seen here. The bay being shaped like a mortar, Isebachi-tomari may instead be the stretch between the two points.
Batchelor carries both parts in the proposed senses, iso as bare rocks off the shore and pake as a head. The proponent notes that the offshore rock he would expect is missing at the place, and marks the reading as uncertain.
Attestations
- エショハケ document Edo period 西蝦夷日誌
エショハケ（岩崎）、イセハチ泊と誤る。此湾恰も擂盆イセハチの如きより号くと云り。上をエシヨハケ岳と云
Matsuura takes イセバチ for a Japanese name, a mortar, given for the shape of the bay, and エショハケ for the Ainu name behind it.
zenibako_trek…
Related names
- シルウトル しるうとる — sir-utur 'between the hills', a name that points directly at the point between the two capes. zenibako_trek…
- 浜スマイ はますまい — Tamamushi Sadayū's name for the Isoya-side foot of the Raiden mountain road; the author suggests so-oma-i 'place where there is rocky shore', with a hedge. zenibako_trek…
- カムイシリパ かむいしりぱ — A name that turns up repeatedly hereabouts; some sources put it at Cape Raiden and others at Cape Isebachi. Its position, like several others here, is not settled. zenibako_trek…