二風谷にぶたに Nibutani

Biratori, Hidaka region, Hokkaidō

Ainu spellings: Nipu-ta-an-i

The Saru valley settlement best known outside Hokkaidō, and one whose received reading the article rejects on sound grounds.

Location

42.6354, 142.1784 · Coordinates: OpenStreetMap Nominatim, 2026-09-10, on 二風谷. Open in OpenStreetMap

Referents

settlement Nibutani in Biratori, where a kotan has been reconstructed as the Ainu culture museum

Analyses

ni-tay

ニタイ ‘wood of trees’ received reading

ni ‘tree’
tay ‘wood’

Proponent: 定説

Objections

Nitai does not change into Nibutani. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek…

Confidence: low

Both parts are dictionary words; the objection is to the distance between the form and the recorded name.

zenibako_trek… 「二風谷（にぶたに）」

nipu-ta-an-i

ニプタニ ‘place where the storehouse is’ proposed

nipu ‘wooden storehouse’
ta ‘there, at’
an ‘be’
i ‘place’

Proponent: zenibako_trek（小樽銭函地名歴史研究会） (zenibako_trek (Otaru Zenibako Place-Name and History Society))

Matsuura describes nipu in the Bogo Nisshi: 'this is the storehouse of the natives, built up of timber. The people of these parts come here to set spring bows for deer and build it to keep the meat in.'

Confidence: low

The reading matches the recorded name closely and rests on a documented sense of nipu; the article gives no record naming a storehouse at this place.

zenibako_trek… 「二風谷（にぶたに）」

Sources

zenibako_trek…