奴津知 ヌッチ Nutti
Yoichi, Shiribeshi region, Hokkaidō
Ainu spellings: Nutti, Nuuti, Nuti
The Nutchi was the salmon river of the Shimo-Yoichi post, which held no rights on the Yoichi River. Its catch was far smaller than the Yoichi's, and the standing of Shimo-Yoichi rose only when Japanese herring fishing began in the late Edo period, since herring take well off a rocky shore.
Location
43.1926, 140.7644 · Coordinates: OpenStreetMap Nominatim, 2026-09-10, on ヌッチ川. Open in OpenStreetMap
Referents
- river The Nutchi River, west of the Yoichi River. The Tomisawa, Umekawa and present Nutchi rivers all once reached the sea at one mouth, the one now called the Tomisawa; the Edo-period records know a single river here. The lower six hundred metres barely flow, and the bed behind the primary school lies below sea level.
- settlement The Shimo-Yoichi post, west of the Yoichi River, whose Ainu fished the Nutchi, having no rights on the Yoichi. The Genroku register calls the two Yoichi posts モイレ and ヨイチ.
Analyses
nu-us-i
ヌウシ ‘place of the abundant catch’ received reading- nu ‘abundant catch’
- us ‘be habitually at’
- i ‘place’
Proponent: 永田方正 (Nagata Hōsei)
The river marker reads 「アイヌ語でヌオチ（Nu-ochi）。ヌーは「豊漁」、ヌーウシ或いはヌオッチは「漁獲の多い所」。ヌオチが転訛してヌッチとなった。」 The article reports the reading as resting on 『永田地名解』. The received reading is one of nu-us-i or nu-ot-i, both 'place of the abundant catch'. Many fish were indeed taken in the Nutchi, and Penke-nūshi and Panke-nūshi near the Nissho pass supply a parallel.
Variants
- nu-ot-i ‘place of the abundant catch’ — The form the river marker writes ヌオチ.
Objections
- For all the variation in the spellings, no source writes ヌウシ or ヌオチ. The Shimo-Yoichi post, which fished the Nutchi, had no salmon rights on the Yoichi River and took far less: the Yoichi post's dues around 1739 came to about 140 ryō by the Yoichi town history's reckoning against under 20 ryō for Shimo-Yoichi, with salmon making up a large share of the Yoichi figure. Calling the Nutchi the river of the abundant catch, with the Yoichi beside it, runs against that. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek…
nu 'abundant catch' is a Tamura headword and Batchelor has both the suffix nu 'abundant' and Nu-ush 'plenteous'; the us-i shape is common in place names. No recorded spelling shows the medial sequence the reading needs, and the fishery figures for the two Yoichi posts run against the sense.
not
ノッ ‘cape of sand’ proposed- not ‘cape, point’
Proponent: 松浦武四郎 (Matsuura Takeshirō)
From 『西蝦夷日誌』: 「ノツ（ヌウチ川と云、橋有）、訳て沙の岬の事なりと」. not names capes across Japan, at Notsuke in Nemuro, Nottoto in Rankoshi and Noto in Ishikawa.
Variants
- nup ‘plain, field’ — Raised by the author from Nozuka in Shakotan, nup-ka 'above the plain', as a stem of similar sound. The article records that no evidence secures it and leaves it in reserve.
Objections
- The headland shape is far less marked here than at those capes. The east bank of the Nutchi mouth rises into a slightly protruding hill on the ground, which does not amount to a cape. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek…
not is a dictionary word and Matsuura took it down on the spot, and his ノツ is among the recorded spellings. The land at the river mouth does not answer to it.
nuti
ヌチ ‘still deep water’ proposed- nuti ‘still deep water; a stretch where the river runs slow and even’
Proponent: 山田秀三 (Yamada Hidezō)
Yamada offers it in 『北海道の地名』 for reference and hedges: 「知里博士地名アイヌ語小辞典には「nut,-i。川が一様の深さでゆるやかに流れている所：とろ」という語がある。「そのヌッ」という時はヌチ（nuchi）となる。この川は大川ではないが、ゆったりとした川なので、もしかしたらと思って参考のために書き添えた。」 nuti is the possessed form of nut, and a single word used as a place name often takes that form. Toro in Japanese is a place where the water is deep and its flow very still.
Evidence
- parallel place names
The Shiribetsu River, two mountains away, carries a Nutti whose Japanese name the 恵曽谷日記 of 1869 gives as Nagatoro. The name beside it, ノタヘツ, is nutap-pet with the Japanese name Ōmagari.
- topography
From the mouth of the Nutchi up to about six hundred metres the water hardly moves; the sea wind raises a faint ripple running upstream. The bed behind the primary school stands at -0.4 m, below sea level. Takizawa bridge nearby takes its name from a Mr. Takizawa whose house flooded above floor level whenever the river rose.
- morphological pattern
The derived names round about are read on the same stem: nut-ka 'above the still water' behind ノツカ, the sub-district Nozuka, with nut-ka-(o)-pet for the Nozuka River; nut-pa 'the upper end of the still water' behind ヌッパヲマナイ, nut-pa-oma-nay 'the stream at the upper end of the still water'; ヌッチカペタイ as nut-ka-pet-tay 'the wood by the Nozuka River'; ヌッチカガタイ as nut-ka-ka-tay 'the wood above Nozuka'; ヌッフコチ as nut-kot 'the Nozuka hollow'; and ヌッチコペパニ as nut-kot-pet-pani. Nozuka lies upstream of the stretch called Nutchi, around Sawa-machi and Toyooka. The article states that the group leaves room for further work.
The reading matches the recorded spellings exactly and is carried by an independent case on the Shiribetsu where the Japanese name Nagatoro translates it, and the stretch of river answers to the sense. nut is absent from the Saru dialect dictionary and from Batchelor; the article's warrant for it is 『地名アイヌ語小辞典』 as quoted by Yamada.
Attestations
- ヌッチ map modern 地理院地図・土地連絡図・行政区画・梨本氏蔵書
The spellings vary more than is usual for an Ainu place name, and no major map agrees with another. Forms in ヌッチ and ヌウチ are the most numerous. Spellings beginning with ス are taken as miswritings of ヌ.
zenibako_trek… - ヌウチ document Edo to early Meiji 林家文書・天保郷帳・天保里数書・恵曽谷日記zenibako_trek…
- ヌッチー map Edo period 伊能大図
『高橋蝦夷図』 has ニブチー.
zenibako_trek… - ノツ／ヌツハヲマナイ document Edo period 松浦日記・松浦山川図zenibako_trek…
- ヌッチカフ／ヌッフコチー／ヌッチコペパニ／ヌッチカガタイ／ヌッチカペタイ／ノツカ（野束） document Edo to Taishō 秦蝦夷島図・今井測量原図・土地連絡図・行政区画・道庁切測図
Spellings with a further element after the name. The sub-district names ヌッチカペタイ and ヌッチコペパニ are the ones the article treats as most informative.
zenibako_trek… - ヌッチ document 1869 恵曽谷日記（山田民弥）
両岸に柳が多い、ノタヘツ（和名は大曲という）。左は、小川、ヌッチ（和名は長瀞という）
On the Shiribetsu River, two mountains away. The Japanese name given for that Nutti is Nagatoro 'long deep still water'. Nagadoro appears on the 1888 1:50,000 sheet and a Nagatoro bridge still crosses the Shiribetsu.
zenibako_trek… - nu dictionary 1996
【名】[概](所は nuwe ヌウェ)(連他動詞の前部要素)狩猟や漁や採集や交易の収穫が多いこと、豊漁。
Tamura's other nu is the transitive verb 'hear'.
田村1996 s.v. nu - Nu dictionary 1905
Nu … part. Suffixed to nouns nu has the force of nuye an, "to be abundant." As:—Chepnu, "an abundance of fish." Yuknu, "plenty of deer."
Batchelor also has Nu-ush 'plenteous, abundant'. Neither Batchelor nor Tamura has an entry for nut; the article cites 『地名アイヌ語小辞典』 for it.
Batchelor1905 s.v. Nu (part.) - Nutap dictionary 1905
Nutap, ヌタプ, n. The inside of a bend in a river. An isthmus.
Beside the ヌッチ of the 恵曽谷日記 stands ノタヘツ, nutap-pet, whose Japanese name Ōmagari 'great bend' matches the sense. The article reads the pairing as the work of a namer at home in Ainu.
Batchelor1905 s.v. Nutap
Related names
- 野束 のつか — nut-ka 'above the still water', upstream of the stretch called Nutchi, around Sawa-machi and Toyooka; the Nozuka River as nut-ka-(o)-pet 'the river above the still water'. zenibako_trek…
- モイレ もいれ — moyre names a place where the waves are still. The Genroku register calls the Shimo-Yoichi post Moire, and the Shimo-Yoichi post house stood at the foot of Moire-yama. Oshoro was also called Moire at times, and the Yoichi chief chose Oshoro bay for his councils during the Shakushain war, which suggests Oshoro lay within the Yoichi sphere. The author holds that the name suits the Oshoro bay, closed by mountains on three sides, better than the foot of Moire-yama, and records that the Ainu called the foot of Moire-yama Shumaoi 'place of many rocks'. zenibako_trek…