百姓沢 ウーセ Use
Yoichi, Shiribeshi region, Hokkaidō
Ainu spellings: Uuse
One of the three tributaries of the Nutchi that Matsuura took down.
Referents
- river A small tributary on the right bank of the Nutchi, identified by the local history of Toyooka-chō with Hyakushō-zawa.
Analyses
use
ウーセ ‘commoner’ proposed- use ‘ordinary, common’
Proponent: 豊丘町の郷土史
The Yoichi Ainu are said to have settled the chief of a people who had come from far away in this valley, and the name is traced to use-kur 'ordinary person', the word for a commoner, which the local history also takes to be behind the Japanese name Hyakushō-zawa 'peasants' valley'.
use-kur is the word the local history gives for a commoner. The article states that a place name explained this way is unusual.
ousi
オウシ ‘the foot of the mountain’ proposed- ousi ‘the foot of a mountain’
Proponent: zenibako_trek（小樽銭函地名歴史研究会） (zenibako_trek (Otaru Zenibako Place-Name and History Society))
Offered as an addition on the shape of the ground; ousi and ouske both name the foot of a mountain.
The author adds it as a possibility without argument from the record.
Attestations
- ウーセ document Edo period 辰手控・竹四郎廻浦日記（松浦武四郎）
川すじしばし上りてウーセ、右の方小沢、並びてイクービ、同じく右の方またしばし行てクツカルシナイ、右の方 此辺山に成るよし。両岸沢目ひろし。桃花魚多し。
Matsuura's 『辰手控』 lists three right-bank tributaries of the Nutchi: 「◯ノツ川小名 ウーセ 右 イクービ 右 クツカルシナイ 右」. The 川筋取調図 adds シノマンノツ and ホリカノツ, which the article sets aside as later additions, since most シノマン names on the 山川図 are added later.
zenibako_trek…