占守島 しゅむしゅとう Shumshu
Northern Kuril Islands
Ainu spellings: Shumushu, Shumuch, Kushan kotan, Shimoshiri
The Kuril Ainu name is recorded by Torii as Shumushu, also Shumuch. Torii's informants placed the northern limit of their own knowledge of the chain at this island (pp. 40–41).
Location
50.7487, 156.3503 · Coordinates: OpenStreetMap Nominatim, 2026-09-11, on 占守島. Open in OpenStreetMap
Referents
- island The northernmost island of the Kurils, off Cape Lopatka; one of the three islands with permanent Kuril Ainu villages before the 1884 removal to Shikotan
Analyses
Kushan kotan
クシャンコタン ‘the place where people first came out’ proposed- kushan ‘(Torii: 'first come out')’
- kotan ‘place, village’
Proponent: 鳥居龍藏 (Torii Ryūzō)
Torii's gloss of the old name; he gives no segmentation. The form is the informants' and stands as recorded.
Torii records the gloss without a segmentation; kushan is not identified with any dictionary word here, and only the kotan half can be checked.
Shi-moshiri
シモシリ ‘the great country’ proposed- si ‘great, true’
- mosir ‘land, island’
Proponent: Batchelor, John (John Batchelor)
Batchelor's reading of the head Shimushu / Shimushir / Shumushu.
Batchelor's head conflates two islands, and si-mosir fits Shimushir (新知島) far better than Shumushu; Torii's informants said Shumushu, with no si.
Attestations
- Shumushu oral record 1903 鳥居龍藏『千島アイヌ』第二章「千島地名解」
又一名 Shumuch と云ふ、古は Kushan kotan と稱したり、即ち「人の始めて出たる所」の義なり
Torii gives Shumuch as a second form and Kushan kotan as the old name, 'the place where people first came out'.
鳥居1903 p. 41 - Shimushu / Shimushir / Shumushu dictionary 1905 An Ainu-English-Japanese Dictionary, 2nd ed.
Shimoshiri. The great country.
Batchelor lists Shimushu, Shimushir and Shumushu together under one head, which folds Shumshu into Simushir (新知島), a different island; in chief ヤコーフ's division reported by Torii the two are separate islands (p. 36).
Batchelor1905 § V "Place Names Considered", s.v. Shimushu