祝津 しゅくつ Shukutsu
Shukutsu, Otaru, Shiribeshi region, and Shukutsu, Muroran, Iburi region, Hokkaidō
Ainu spellings: Sikutusi, Sikutur, Sikkutusi
The settlement name is recorded as Sikutusi from 1635 onward and the cape beside it as Sikutoru or Sikutotsu, at Otaru and at Muroran alike. All three readings proposed for it share the ending us-i 'place where it is' and differ in the first element.
Location
43.2303, 141.0080 · Coordinates: OpenStreetMap Nominatim, 2026-09-10, on 祝津. Open in OpenStreetMap
Readings in the place-name tables: シクトゥル Sikutur
Referents
- settlement Two places carry the name: Shukutsu in Otaru, at Takashima cape below the Hiyoriyama lighthouse, and Shukutsu in Muroran, at the upper end of the Etomo peninsula by the foot of the Hakuchō bridge. Both are steep sea cliffs on a protruding cape
- cape The cape itself, recorded separately as Sikutoru / Sikutotsu: Takashima cape in Otaru, mapped as シクトル岬, and the Muroran cape as シクトツ岬
Analyses
sikutut-us-i
シクツツシ ‘place where Ezo chives grow’ received reading- sikutut ‘Ezo chive’
- us ‘grow at’
- i ‘place’
Proponent: 永田方正 (Nagata Hōsei)
Nagata writes Shikutut for both Shukutsu, glossing the Otaru one 山葱 with the remark 満山総葱 and the Muroran one 葱, adding that it is gone there now. He gives the bare plant name; the shape with us-i is the author's, since a plant name on its own rarely becomes a place name. The Shukutsu town history reports Ezo chives growing on the cliff top above the shore. sikutut, also sikutur, is the Ezo chive; wild garlic is kito or pukusa.
Objections
- The old records mostly give Sikutusi, with one syllable fewer than sikutut-us-i requires. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek…
The plant name is a dictionary word, and the recorded spellings are one syllable short of the form the analysis needs.
si-kut-us-i
シクツシ ‘place with a true rock cliff’ proposed- si ‘true, main’
- kut ‘rocky cliff’
- us ‘be at’
- i ‘place’
Proponent: 知里真志保 (Chiri Mashiho)
A reading from the landform. There is a marked rock cliff below the Hiyoriyama lighthouse in Otaru, and the Muroran Shukutsu is likewise a protruding cape, so the two places share a landform.
Objections
- si is closer to 'true' or 'main' than to 'big', and is given to a main course or to a place that stands out against its surroundings. Grand cliff scenery runs from Shioya through Otamoi to Akaiwa, so whether the Shukutsu cliff can be called the true one is open to doubt. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek…
kut 'rocky cliff' is a dictionary word in the sense used and fits the landform of both places; the element si carries the doubt the author raises.
sik-kut-us-i
シクツシ ‘place with a cliff filled with water’ proposed- sik ‘be full of water’
- kut ‘rocky cliff’
- us ‘be at’
- i ‘place’
Proponent: zenibako_trek（小樽銭函地名歴史研究会） (zenibako_trek (Otaru Zenibako Place-Name and History Society))
The analysis keeps Chiri's kut-us-i and replaces si with sik 'be full'. sik is said of the outer container, in the way a bowl is full of soup; the soup itself is not what sik describes. Both Shukutsu lie on capes surrounded by water; at the Otaru cape the Kinrin and Anama caves stand in the cliff.
Variants
- sik-kut-or ‘place of the water-filled cliff’ — The reading for the cape, recorded as Sikutoru at Hiyoriyama in Otaru by Mamiya and Inō and as Sikutotsu at Muroran.
Evidence
- morphological pattern
A sequence of consonants is usually reduced, as in sak-kotan for Shakotan, so si-kut-us-i and sik-kut-us-i sound almost the same. What differs is the accent: with si the following word takes the accent, with sik the accent falls on the first syllable.
- morphological pattern
An elder of Shukutsu reports that the name used to be pronounced with the accent on the first syllable, シクヅシ, which is where sik puts it.
- documents
Kūnen's Ezochi Nōkyōki of 1704 writes シツクツシ, which carries the doubled consonant the analysis expects.
Both sik 'be full' and kut 'rocky cliff' are dictionary words in the senses used, and the reading agrees with the reported accent and with one early spelling. It rests on a single elder's pronunciation and on one document, and the author reaches it by substitution inside Chiri's segmentation, with no parallel place name behind it.
Attestations
- シクツシ map 1635 松前蝦夷図
The earliest occurrence of the Otaru name. Through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the records give this shape, with the variants シクズシ, シシツシ, シツクツシ, シクツイシ.
zenibako_trek… - しくずし map Genroku era 元禄国絵図zenibako_trek…
- シツクツシ document 1704 蝦夷地納経記（空念）
Kūnen collected Ainu words himself on the spot, which the author treats as making this spelling with a doubled consonant worth weighing.
zenibako_trek… - シクジシ map 19th century 松浦武四郎の図zenibako_trek…
- シクトル map 19th century 伊能大図; 間宮河川図
Both surveyors write Sikutoru at Hiyoriyama, where the cape stands. The author reads it as a separate derived name of its own.
zenibako_trek… - 祝津志 / シクトツ岬 map 1917–1955 今昔マップ室蘭
The Muroran name written 祝津志 on the 1917 sheet and the cape as シクトツ岬 on the 1955 sheet; in Otaru 祝津 is read Shikutsushi.
zenibako_trek…
Related names
- 敷島内 しきしまない — A name at Raiden in Iwanai. DB Ainu Place Names reads it siktut-oma-nay 'stream where Ezo chives grow', which the author finds too far from the sound Shikishimanai, and he weighed sik-suma-nay 'stream of the water-filled rock' without finding the rock: the Raiden coast is sheer and rocky, but the ground turns gentle at Shikishimanai. He leaves the name unexplained and sets it beside Shikishima in Bifuka for later work. zenibako_trek…
- 色丹 しこたん — Read si-kotan 'main village'. The author notes that sik-kotan 'village full of water' would suit the deep inlet at Anama in the middle of the island, then declines it: the accent seems to fall on ko, and he finds no ground to overturn the received reading. He adds that Shakotan sak-kotan 'summer village' and Matakotan mata-kotan 'winter village' lie north of the island and that Shakotan may have become Shikotan. zenibako_trek…