Ainu Morpheme Explorer
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Niikappu, Hidaka region, Hokkaidō

新冠

にいかっぷ Niikappu

The Ainu-sounding modern name was coined in 1809 by a Japanese official; the name the place carried before that was Pipoku, tied to the rock at the river mouth.

Ainu spellings: Ni-kap, Pi-pok

Analyses

ni-kap

ニカップ

received reading

tree bark

Proponent: 羽太正養 (Habuto Masayasu)

The name was coined because elms and lindens grew along the river and bark was stripped there.

Objections

  • A name with no noun that refers directly to the ground is unusual, and this one was coined by a Japanese official in 1809. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek2025
zenibako_trek2025 「新冠（にいかっぷ）」
Analysis details
Confidence: low

Both parts are dictionary words in the senses used. The name was minted in 1809 as a replacement, so it records an official's choice.

pi-pok

ピポク

proposed

below the rock

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

The name the place carried before 1809, recorded by Matsuura as Piboku. It refers to the great rock of Hangan-kan at the mouth of the Niikappu River, where the Pipoku casi stood. The Hangan of the Japanese name is Minamoto no Yoshitsune, and the legend attached there follows the usual pattern; the same headland is where Shakushain was killed by the Matsumae domain after his rising.

zenibako_trek2025 「新冠（にいかっぷ）」
Analysis details
Confidence: low

Both parts are dictionary words and the rock is identified, while the article gives the reading of Piboku without a source that glosses the older name.

Ni-kap-kotan

proposed

The place of the tree bark

Proponent: John Batchelor

Bark fibre was formerly used in making Ainu cloth.

Batchelor1905 § V "Place Names Considered", s.v. Niikappu
Analysis details
Confidence: low

Batchelor's reading and gloss as printed in 1905; the segmentation is his, and several of its elements answer to no dictionary headword.

Attestations

  • ニイカフ / ビボク document 19th century 蝦夷地郡名之儀申上候書付（松浦武四郎）
    この地、原名ビボクと申し候処。唱悪く候間、文化六年羽太安藝守、この川に楡榀等木多くある故、ニイカフと改めるるに、夷語ニとは木の事、カブとは皮と申す事。この所にて木の皮を剥き用候間、かく号く候由。訳して木皮の義に御座候。

    The name Niikappu was given by the Matsumae magistrate Habuto Masayasu in 1809 in place of Pipoku, which he found ill-sounding. Habuto is the same official who had Shikotsu changed to Chitose. Matsuura kept the older name and titled his account of the district Tōbu Hihoku-shi.

Sources