小樽内 オタルナイ Otarunai
Otaru, Shiribeshi region, Hokkaidō; the older referent lies at Zenibako 4-chōme on the Otaru–Sapporo boundary
Ainu spellings: Otarunay, Otanay, Otarunnay
The name belonged first to a river at the Otaru–Sapporo boundary, near the mouth of the present Shinkawa, and moved west with the post house to Minami-Otaru, which had been Kuttarusi. Every proposed reading takes ota 'sand' and nay 'stream' as fixed; the middle element is what the readings disagree about. The author holds that a description of the origin should give the recorded form オタルナイ, and that stating the name was pronounced オタオルナイ goes beyond what any record supports.
Location
43.1664, 141.2545 · Coordinates: OpenStreetMap Nominatim, 2026-09-10, on 銭函四丁目. Open in OpenStreetMap
Referents
- river The Otarunai River, which reached the sea just east of the mouth of the present Shinkawa. Its upper course is the Hoshioki River and its lower course the Kiyokawa; Otane Marsh at Zenibako 4-chōme is a remnant of it. The river carried the boundary between Otaru and Sapporo from the Edo period until the Ishikari Bay New Port was built.
- settlement The Otarunai trading post and district. The post house stood at Zenibako and later moved to Kuttarusi in what is now Iribune-chō, Minami-Otaru, taking the name with it; the modern city of Otaru carries it.
Analyses
ota-ru-nay
ヲタルーナイ ‘sand-road stream’ proposedProponent: 松浦武四郎 (Matsuura Takeshirō)
Matsuura writes 「ヲタルナイ。訳して沙路沢ヲタルーナイにして、その地は石狩境の川なり」 in 『西蝦夷日誌』 and 「ヲタルナイはヲタは沙にして、ルは路、ナイは沢。沙路沢と訳すなり」 in 『蝦夷地道名国名郡名之義申上候書付』, the second of which went to the newly founded Hokkaidō Development Commission in 1869. Sugae Masumi already had the same reading in 1789: 「ヲタは砂といふ詞にして、砂ざきなどのありけるにや。おく蝦夷国には砂路沢ヲタルナヰといふコタンもありけり」, heard at Ōta in Setana. Shirano Kaun's 『蝦夷地名録』 of 1889 also gives 「砂ノ路」, from Ainu informants.
Evidence
- parallel place names
Names built on ota-ru occur elsewhere. At Rumoi the Otarumatasetsu River is glossed by Matsuura as 「譯て沙路有犬川の義」, ota-ru-oma-seta-pet 'dog river where there is a sand road'. West of Lake Utonai at Tomakomai, Nagata gives 「Otaromap オタロマㇷ゚ 沙路アル處」, ota-ru-oma-p 'place where there is a sand road'. The article sets Tarumae aside, preferring taor-oma-i 'place at the high river bank' for it.
- documents
A rest house stood at the mouth of the Otarunai River for travellers on the twenty-kilometre sand beach between Zenibako and Ishikari Motomachi, a stretch Matsuura walked at least four times. Matsuura also records a mountain crossing from Otarunai to Kumausi, the present Funahama-chō: 「クマウシナイ またここより山越、風波荒き時はヲタルナイへ行道あるよしなり」 and 「ヲタルナイ ここより又クマウシへ山越道有るなり」. The Hassap Ainu told him to walk straight to the sea when snow lay on the ground, and an official resident at Hoshioki is recorded as having cut grass along the Otarunai to keep a path open.
Objections
- Nagata calls the reading an error: 「当地名解にオタルナイは沙路川或いは沙解る川とあるは最も誤る」. — 永田方正 zenibako_trek…
Every part is a Tamura headword in the sense used, and the reading is the oldest on record, held independently by Sugae in 1789, by Matsuura, and by Shirano from Ainu informants. Three juxtaposed nouns is a shape the article reports modern readers find awkward, and Nagata rejects the medial syllable outright.
ota-ru-nay
オタルーナイ ‘stream where the sand dissolves’ proposed- ota ‘sand’
- ru ‘melt, dissolve’
- nay ‘stream’
Proponent: 上原熊次郎 (Uehara Kumajirō)
From 『蝦夷地名考并里程記』: 「夷語ヲタとは砂の事、ルーとは解ける又は道などと申事、ナイは沢の事にて、すなわち、砂の解ける小川と訳す。この川、常に砂の解け流れる故この名ありといふ。」 Uehara was an Ainu-language interpreter, and his account allows 'road' for ru as well.
Objections
- Covered by the same sentence in 『蝦夷語地名解』, which rejects both 沙路川 and 沙解る川. — 永田方正 zenibako_trek…
Tamura carries ru 'melt' as an intransitive verb, and taking it as the predicate of ota gives a well-formed name. Which of the two senses of ru the namers had in mind cannot be settled from the spellings alone.
ota-nay
オタナイ ‘sand stream’ proposed- ota ‘sand’
- nay ‘stream’
Proponent: 永田方正 (Nagata Hōsei)
Nagata states that the middle syllable is an error of long standing: 「Ota nai オタナイ 沙川。石狩郡と小樽郡の境にある川なり。和人オタルナイと云うは非なり。…オタナイの誤りなり。元禄郷帳既にオタルナイに作る。その誤謬の久しき殆どオタナイの原名をして沙中に埋没せしむ危いなり」.
Objections
- Edo-period sources and maps vary between オタルナイ, オタンナイ and オタルンナイ, and hardly any of them drops the middle syllable. Spellings without it begin to appear only in the Meiji era. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek…
Both parts are dictionary words and the two-element shape is common, while the documentary record runs against the form Nagata declares original.
ota-or-nay
オタオルナイ ‘stream in the sand beach’ received readingProponent: 更科源蔵 (Sarashina Genzō)
The reading in current use, carried by the Otaru city website, the Japanese Wikipedia article and 『小樽市史』. Its earliest appearance the article finds is the 1950 edition of 『北海道駅名の起源』: 「アイヌ語「オタルナイ」即ち「オタ・オル・ナイ」（砂浜の中の川）から転訛したもので、現在の石狩町と小樽市の境にあるオタルナイ川をさしてものである」. Sarashina's 『アイヌ語地名解』 gives the same wording, 「地名の起源はオタ・オル・ナイ（砂浜の中の川）であり」, and he was one of the three editors of the 1950 revision, with Takakura Shin'ichirō and Chiri Mashiho. This reading renders ota as 'sand beach', a rendering particular to it. 『小樽市史』 has it in the 1958 edition and not in the 1943 one.
Evidence
- morphological pattern
or 'place, inside' after a noun makes place names elsewhere: Oshoro us-or 'inside the inlet', Orofure oro-fure-nay 'stream whose inside is red'.
Objections
- Yamada works out the phonetics in 『北海道の地名』: 「ota-or-naiだと、地名として続けて呼べばアイヌ語の発音上オタオンナイになる。元禄郷帳の昔からのオタルナイを考えると、少し考えてみたくなる点がある。オタオンナイは母音が一つ略されてオタンナイともなりそうだ。その音が少しつまるとオタナイとなる。現地の人の「おたね」はそれか？」 — 山田秀三 zenibako_trek…
- Reported by Yamada in 『北海道の川の名』: 「なんだが気にかかるので、病院にいた知里さんを訪ね、意見を求めた。知里さんも頭をひねって、「どうも変だ、発音上rの音がでる川名であったらしいですね」と話された。」 — 知里真志保 zenibako_trek…
- No Edo-period source records the pronunciation オタオルナイ, and reaching オタルナイ from it is difficult. The reading spread after 1950, and the writers who held it, unlike Sugae, Matsuura, Shirano and Batchelor before them, had little occasion to take the name down from Ainu speakers. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek…
Both ota and nay are dictionary words and the shape is grammatical; the objection is to the sound. Three of the sources the article cites, Yamada, Chiri and the author, hold that this form does not yield the attested オタルナイ.
ota-un-nay
オタウンナイ ‘stream that runs into the sand’ proposedProponent: zenibako_trek（小樽銭函地名歴史研究会） (zenibako_trek (Otaru Zenibako Place-Name and History Society))
The coast from Dream Beach to Otane Beach carries a dune belt several kilometres long, and the old Otarunai cut through it; its sharp bend near the mouth follows the dune. The author offers ota as the name of that dune. A variant with ru added, ota-ru-un-nay 'stream that runs into the sand road', is raised in the same passage.
Variants
- ota-ru-un-nay ‘stream that runs into the sand road’ — Keeps the element ru of the older readings inside the same shape.
Evidence
- morphological pattern
A little upstream of the Otarunai lies Kotsunnai kot-un-nay 'stream that runs into the hollow', the present Nigorikawa, where marshland once spread around the site of the present sewage works. The two names are built alike.
- parallel place names
Otaunnai is also the name of a small river flowing into Lake Akan, now called the Ugui River, where the mouth likewise has a sand beach.
- documents
The author puts this form forward as one that covers the whole spread of spellings: ヲタンナイ, common in the Bunka-era documents written when few Japanese lived there; ヲタルンナイ, written by Mamiya Rinzō and Inō Tadataka; オトウナイ in the 1669 source; and Nagata's オタナイ. From the Tenpō years onward the spellings settle on オタルナイ, about the time the Otarunai post spread its fisheries across the whole of Otaru district, having opened one at Zenibako in 1838.
ota, un and nay are all dictionary words in the senses used, and the parallel kot-un-nay stands next to it on the same river system. The support is the spread of recorded spellings; the form itself appears in no record.
ota-or-un-nay
オタオルンナイ ‘stream that runs into the sandy place’ proposedProponent: 浜田さん
Raised in the same passage as the author's own ota-un-nay.
Combines the or of the received reading with the un of the author's, and the article gives it in one line without argument.
Ota-ru
‘The sand road’ proposed- Ota ‘sand’
- ru ‘road’
Proponent: John Batchelor
Variants
- Otaru nai ‘the brook by the sand road’ — Given in the grammar, chapter V, Names of Places.
Batchelor's reading and gloss as printed in 1905; the segmentation is his, and several of its elements answer to no dictionary headword.
Attestations
- おとうない document 1669 松前より上蝦夷地迄所付
Listed beside しくずし (Shukutsu) and おしよろ (Oshoro). The article treats this as possibly the oldest record of the name.
zenibako_trek… - おたる内 document 1670 狄蜂起集書（狄蜂起ニ付松前より上下狄地迄所付覚）zenibako_trek…
- おたる内 document 1700 松前島郷帳（元禄郷帳）
一 よゐち 一 しくずし 一 かつち内 一 おたる内 一 はつしやふ 一 しのろ 一 しやつほろ 一 いしかり
The name stands between Katsunai and Hassap, away from the Shukutsu–Katsunai stretch, which places it well toward Ishikari.
zenibako_trek… - ヲタルナイ map 1807 蝦夷地図（今井寛次郎）
Drawn far east of Takashima and Temiya, near Betsupputo, the present Ishikari Motomachi.
zenibako_trek… - ヲタルンナイ map Edo period 伊能図
Mamiya Rinzō and Inō Tadataka both write the name with an n before the final nay.
zenibako_trek… - ヲタルナイ document Edo period 江戸時代の日誌・地図・文献
About eight in ten Edo-period sources write ヲタルナイ or a near equivalent. A few write ヲタンナイ or ヲタルンナイ. 大日本接壌三国之全図 alone drops the middle syllable and writes オタナイ. No source writes オタオルナイ.
zenibako_trek… - ヲタルナイ document 1846 蝦夷日誌（松浦武四郎）
この処はクツタルウシが本名にして其のヲタルナイは、これより三里あまりも東北の方に当たりてその地名あり。もはや石狩領の境なり。
Matsuura separates the two places: Minami-Otaru is Kuttarusi, and Otarunai lies some three ri to the north-east at the edge of the Ishikari domain.
zenibako_trek… - オタナイ dictionary Meiji era 蝦夷語地名解（永田方正）
松前藩、オタナイの支流マサラカオマプに住居するアイヌを今の小樽郡入船町の内字クッタルシの地に移して小樽場所を置きたるを初とす。
Nagata records the move of the Ainu of Masarakaomap, west of the present Hoshimi station, to Kuttarusi in Iribune-chō.
zenibako_trek… - ota dictionary 1996
【名】砂。 ☆参考 砂浜を指すこともあるが基本的には「砂」。
田村1996 s.v. ota - ru dictionary 1996
【自動】とける、(塩などが水に)溶ける、(氷などが)融ける。 ／ 【名】[概](所は ruwe(he) ルウェ(ヘ)) ①跡、道。
Tamura carries both readings the Edo commentators used: the intransitive verb 'melt' and the noun 'track, road'.
田村1996 s.v. ru
Related names
- クッタルウシ くったるうし — kuttar-usi 'place of much giant knotweed', the old name of the Minami-Otaru district around Iribune-chō, where the Otarunai post house moved. Matsuura calls it the true name of that place, distinct from Otarunai. zenibako_trek…
- オタモイ おたもい — ota-moy 'sandy inlet', in Otaru. zenibako_trek…
- 歌棄 おたすつ — ota-sut 'the end of the sand beach'. zenibako_trek…
- 大楽毛 おたのしけ — ota-noske 'the middle of the sand beach'. zenibako_trek…
- 色内 いろない — Read by one account as i-ru-o-nay 'stream with the bear's track', another name built on ru, though the article notes the reading is disputed. zenibako_trek…
- 留寿都・留辺蘂 るすつ・るべしべ — ru-sut 'the foot of the road' and ru-pes-pe 'place along the road', beside ru-cis for a mountain pass; names in which ru is written short or long. zenibako_trek…
- 樽前 たるまえ — Sometimes read ota-ru-oma-i 'place where there is a sand road'. The article prefers taor-oma-i 'place at the high river bank', given the Tarumae Garō gorge, and leaves it out of the ota-ru group. zenibako_trek…
- マサラカオマプ まさらかおまぷ — A tributary of the Otanai in Nagata's account, taken by the article to lie around Hoshino-chō and the Zenibako 3-chōme industrial estate, west of the present Hoshimi station. zenibako_trek…