紫雲古津 しうんこつ Shiunkotsu
Biratori, Hidaka region, Hokkaidō
Ainu spellings: Sum-un-kot, Su-un-kot
Two readings that differ in one segment and are supported by different kinds of evidence.
Location
42.5548, 142.0686 · Coordinates: OpenStreetMap Nominatim, 2026-09-10, on 紫雲古津. Open in OpenStreetMap
Readings in the place-name tables: スムウンコッ Sum-un-kot
Referents
- settlement Shiunkotsu in Biratori
Analyses
sum-un-kot
シュムンコツ ‘the valley to the west’ proposed- sum ‘west’
- un ‘that is at’
- 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 author prefers this reading because of where the place lies.
sum 'west' and kot 'hollow' are dictionary items in the senses used; the choice between this reading and the pot reading rests on the position of the place.
su-un-kot
シュウンコツ ‘the valley where the pot is’ proposedProponent: zenibako_trek（小樽銭函地名歴史研究会） (zenibako_trek (Otaru Zenibako Place-Name and History Society))
Ainu from this village took the family name Nabesawa, 'pot valley', when surnames were assigned in the Meiji period.
Both readings use dictionary words; this one has the surname behind it and the other the lie of the land.
Shum-un-kot-kotan
‘The village of scum’ proposed- Shum ‘scum’
- un ‘be in’
- kot ‘hollow, bend’
- kotan ‘village’
Proponent: John Batchelor
So called on account of scum often seen in a bend of the river here. The printed gloss is garbled in the scan; the comment gives the sense.
Batchelor's reading and gloss as printed in 1905; the segmentation is his, and several of its elements answer to no dictionary headword.