親子別 おやこべつ Oyakobetsu
Iwanai, Shiribeshi region, Hokkaidō
Ainu spellings: O-ya-kor-pet, Ray-ni, Si-ray-ni
The name looks Japanese and reads as a parting of parent and child; it appears in no Edo-period record.
Location
42.9286, 140.4165 · Coordinates: OpenStreetMap Nominatim, 2026-09-10, on 親子別川. Open in OpenStreetMap
Referents
- river The Oyakobetsu River on the Raiden coast, with the Oyakobetsu snowshed at its mouth. The Edo-period records call it ライニ川 or シライニ川; the name 親子別 does not appear in them.
Analyses
o-ya-kor-pet
オヤコㇿペッ ‘river that has a shore at its mouth’ proposedProponent: zenibako_trek（小樽銭函地名歴史研究会） (zenibako_trek (Otaru Zenibako Place-Name and History Society))
The author raises the objection himself: every river has a shore at its mouth. The point is taken to be the Raiden mountain road. That road runs some 10 km over the hills and comes down to sea level at one place only, where the track from Asahi-onsen descends by the Oyakobetsu. Asahi-onsen sits on the upper Yūnai River, but the Yūnai is steep-sided, so the way down went by the neighbouring Oyakobetsu. On that reading the name marks the river whose mouth the descent reaches.
kor and pet are dictionary words; o and ya in the proposed senses are not carried by the dictionaries consulted here. The proponent raises the objection to the reading himself and answers it from the route of the mountain road.
Attestations
- シライニ document Edo period
Paired with the neighbouring ポンライニ; the prefix si- marks the main stream.
zenibako_trek… - ラエニベツ map Tenpō era 今井測量原図zenibako_trek…
Related names
- 弁慶の薪積岩 べんけいのまきつみいわ — Stands at the mouth of the Oyakobetsu and is one of the sights of Raiden. zenibako_trek…