支笏 しこつ Shikotsu
Lake Shikotsu and Chitose, Ishikari region, Hokkaidō
Ainu spellings: Sikot, Sikkot
The received reading and the author's differ in one consonant and in what the name first denoted: the lowland around Chitose, or Lake Shikotsu in the mountains. Both parties read the second element as kot 'hollow'. The Edo-period informants tie the name to Shikotsu-yama, which the sightline reports identify as Mt. Fuppushi.
Location
42.7539, 141.3275 · Coordinates: OpenStreetMap Nominatim, 2026-09-10, on 支笏湖. Open in OpenStreetMap
Referents
- lake Lake Shikotsu, called Shikotsu-numa in Edo-period records
- river The Shikotsu River, today's Chitose River. The stretch that carried the name ran from Lake Shikotsu to Osatsu-numa, where Shikotsu-futo, its mouth, lay; the present Chitose River takes in the Ebetsu River below and the Bifue River above
- settlement The Chitose area. The Hakodate magistrate Habuto Masayasu had the name changed to Chitose because Shikotsu suggested 死骨, and the old name stayed with the lake in the mountains. The Shikotsu Ainu belonged to the Shumkur of the Saru and held Chitose, Eniwa, Kita-Hiroshima and Ebetsu as their iwor
- mountain Shikotsu-yama, which the author identifies with Mt. Fuppushi (1102 m) beside Tarumae-zan
Analyses
si-kot
シコッ ‘big hollow’ received reading- si ‘big’
- kot ‘hollow, valley’
Proponent: 山田秀三 (Yamada Hidezō)
Yamada writes in Hokkaidō no Kawa no Na that the ground above the town of Chitose forms a large hollow around the Chitose River, a valley in English, that it was a famous fishing place, and that it was therefore called Shi-kot and used as both a river name and a place name. Hokkaidō Ekimei no Kigen gives the same reading and takes the name to have covered the whole lowland between Sapporo and Tomakomai. Osatsu-numa and Maoi-numa, shallow and wide, lay in that lowland, and the watershed at the present airport stands only about 25 m above sea level.
Objections
- The elders put the accent on the first syllable, シコツ, where si-kot would put it on ko. si carries the sense 'true' or 'main', which the gloss 'big' does not match. The Edo-period accounts collected from the Shikotsu Ainu also reverse the order of naming: the district takes its name from the mountain and the lake. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek…
kot 'hollow' is a dictionary word in the sense used and the Ishikari lowland fits it; the accent and the first element carry the doubt.
sik-kot
シコッ ‘hollow filled with water’ proposed- sik ‘be full of water’
- kot ‘hollow, valley’
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 is taken to belong to Lake Shikotsu. kot names a valley or a hollow and is seldom used of a pond or a lake, which is what the author's sik 'be full of water' is meant to answer for. The reading matches the elders' accent on the first syllable.
Variants
- sik-kot-toho ‘lake of the water-filled hollow’ — The shape the author gives for the lake, after the spelling シコツトホ; toho is the possessive form of to 'lake', and to serves as well.
Evidence
- morphological pattern
The elders pronounced the name with the accent on the first syllable. The article states that the difference of accent between the two readings of Shikotsu is noted in Tamura's dictionary.
- documents
Tōyama Kinshirō (1807), Tamamushi Sadayū (1857) and Matsuura Takeshirō (1846) all record that the river is called Shikotsu because it comes from Shikotsu-yama, and Matsuura adds Shikotsu-numa. Reports of sightlines from Koitoi, Shikiu, Izaributo, Naganuma, Tōbetsubuto and the upper Yūfutsu, and the statement that the ridge of Tarumae runs on into Shikotsu-yama, place Shikotsu-yama at Mt. Fuppushi, which juts far into the lake.
Both parts are dictionary words in the senses used, and the reading agrees with the reported accent and with the Edo-period accounts that name the lake first. The support for sik over si comes from an accent report, since the two are said to sound almost alike and no spelling separates them.
Shikot-to
‘Rushes lake’ proposed- Shik ‘rush’
- ot ‘plural marker’
- to ‘lake’
Proponent: John Batchelor
Ot determines the shik, a rush, to be of the plural number.
Batchelor's reading and gloss as printed in 1905; the segmentation is his, and several of its elements answer to no dictionary headword.
Attestations
- しこつ山 / しこつ川 document 1807 未曾有後記（遠山金四郎）
（長都）沼を越て浅狭の清川に入り、千歳川に出つ。しこつ山より出る水にて、しこつ川といひしを、公領になりて千歳川と唱へ、山をも、ちとせ山と呼也。
zenibako_trek… - シコツ山 document 1857 入北記（玉虫左太夫）
千歳： シコツ山より出る古シコツ河なり。
zenibako_trek… - シコツ山 / シコツ沼 document 1846 蝦夷日誌（松浦武四郎）
チトセ 本名シコツ 此川上にシコツ山と云山有。又麓にシコツ沼と云沼有より流れ来るが故に、此処をシコツと云いし也
The Edo-period accounts collected from the Shikotsu Ainu put the naming the other way round from the received explanation: the district is called Shikotsu because the river comes from Shikotsu-yama and Shikotsu-numa.
zenibako_trek…
Related names
- シコテㇺコ・エアン・パラト — A name for the lake reported by Yamada Hidezō. The author reads it sik-kot-emko-e-an-para-to 'the wide lake in the middle course of the Shikotsu River' and adds that emko means 'middle', so whether a lake at the head of the river is meant is unclear, unless the Bifue River above the lake counted as the Shikotsu River too. zenibako_trek…
- オコタンペ — A name north-west of Lake Shikotsu, read o-kotan-un-pe 'place with a settlement at its mouth'. The author places the old Shikotsu settlement around the former Okotan campsite. zenibako_trek…
- 江別 えべつ — The author derives it from the Chitose stretch, ipe-ot-i 'place where there are many salmon', and observes that the name now sits at Ebetsubuto where the Ebetsu River meets the Ishikari, a shift toward the river mouth of the kind Sapporo also shows. zenibako_trek…