樽岸 たるぎし Tarugishi
Suttsu, Shiribeshi region, Hokkaidō
Ainu spellings: Taor-ikir-us-i, Taor-kes
The name survives as a district and a bus stop, and the stream it was attached to has lost the name entirely.
Location
42.7667, 140.2486 · Coordinates: OpenStreetMap Nominatim, 2026-09-10, on 樽岸. Open in OpenStreetMap
Readings in the place-name tables: タオロシケ Taor-kes
Referents
- settlement A district at the head of Suttsu Bay, formerly Tarugishi village in Suttsu county; still a district and a bus-stop name.
- river The Taraikirushinai of the old maps. No Tarugishi River exists now; overlaying the coordinates of 伊能図 and 今井図 puts it at the present Banya-no-sawa, by the Tateiwa bus stop.
Analyses
terke-us-i
テㇾケウシ ‘place where one jumps across’ proposedProponent: zenibako_trek（小樽銭函地名歴史研究会） (zenibako_trek (Otaru Zenibako Place-Name and History Society))
Suggested from the sound of タルキシ and from the reef that spreads along this shore; such names attach to places where one crosses rocky shore by jumping. The author sets it aside: a change from an e vowel to an a vowel rarely happens.
All three parts are ordinary, and the proponent himself withdraws the reading on the vowel.
taor-kes
タㇻケㇱ ‘the end of the high river bank’ received reading- taor ‘high ground above a river bank’
- kes ‘end, lower end’
Proponent: 定説 (the received reading)
The reading reaches Tarugishi in sound and matches the landform, and the author finds nothing jarring in it.
Objections
- The old maps write タラエキクシナイ, タラエキリシナイ, タリキシナイ, タライキリシ and タラキルシ, all of which carry a syllable between the taor and the final element that taor-kes does not account for. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek…
kes is a dictionary word in this sense; taor is not carried by the dictionaries consulted here. The older spellings hold a syllable the reading leaves out.
taor-ikir-us-i
タリキルシ ‘place where the high banks stand in a row’ proposedProponent: zenibako_trek（小樽銭函地名歴史研究会） (zenibako_trek (Otaru Zenibako Place-Name and History Society))
Reading the ク of 松浦山川図 as a miswritten リ and the ヱ of 今井図 as イ gives タリキルシ as the original of Tarugishi. The high bank comes right down to the sea here; when wind and waves were up, people walked along the top of it. A mountain road was laid out at the end of the Edo period, and the approach to Tarugishi shrine keeps a trace of it. Beyond the shrine the path gives out into a deer track.
Evidence
- documents
The five old spellings agree in carrying a syllable between タラ and the ending, which is what ikir supplies.
- topography
High bank runs down to the water along this stretch, in a line of successive faces.
ikir, us and the nominalizer are dictionary words; taor is not in the dictionaries consulted here, and the reading needs one map's ク read as リ.
Attestations
- タラエキクシナイ map Edo period 東西蝦夷山川地理取調図
The author reads the ク as a miswriting of リ.
zenibako_trek… 表「古地図・旧記／樽岸（タルキシ）」 - タラエキリシナイ map Edo period 今井測量原図
今井図 habitually writes イ as ヱ, so the original sound behind タラエ is タライ.
zenibako_trek… 表「古地図・旧記／樽岸（タルキシ）」 - タライキリシ map Edo period 伊能大図zenibako_trek… 表「古地図・旧記／樽岸（タルキシ）」
- タリキシナイ map Edo period 天保里数図zenibako_trek… 表「古地図・旧記／樽岸（タルキシ）」
- タラキルシ map Edo period 秦蝦夷島図zenibako_trek… 表「古地図・旧記／樽岸（タルキシ）」
Related names
- 建岩 たていわ — A bus stop and a line of shore houses between Tarugishi and Rokujō. The Ainu name is given as ri-suma 'high rock'. No such rock is visible from the beach now; a fisherman told the author that the rock on the breakwater of Tarugishi harbour is the original, cut down and no longer tall. A postcard shows a rock at the tip of the point beyond the tunnel. The Tateiwa tunnel itself was in use until recently and has since been opened out. zenibako_trek…