PLACE NAMES AND THE REDISCOVERY OF FORMER LANDSCAPES IN IZUMO CITY AND HIKAWA TOWN, JAPAN By MIDORI YAMAMOTO B.A., Ritsumeikan University, 1981 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of Geography) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA September 1 992 © Midori Yamamoto __-- In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of Geography The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date 7-3 I DE.6 (2/88) ABSTRACT Place names in Japan are closely connected to the land where they were named. Differences between Japan and the West regarding the concept of “what is named” are introduced, and universal characteristics of place names are reviewed. Some of the unique and complex characteristics of Japanese place names are also examined. In Japan, especially since early in the Meiji Period (1 808-1 912), many traditional place names have been lost, mainly due to attempts to reduce and simplify names through local government reform. In this thesis, an analysis is made of place names collected from land registration maps issued in 1889 in Izurno City and Hikawa Town, Shimane Prefecture, Japan. Ancient physical and historical landscapes are reconstructed by investigating the distribution patterns and etymologies of place names occurring in the research area. This research shows that place names are valuable messages from the past that tell us many physical and historical features about the land of the past. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT . ii TABLE OF CONTENTS . iii LIST OF TABLES iv LIST OF FIGURES v LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1-1. The Objective of the Thesis and Research Methods 1 7 4 1-2. What is a Place name 1-3. The Nature of Place Names 7 CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND OF JAPANESE PLACE NAMES 11 2-1. Special Characteristics of Japanese Place Names 11 2-2. Review of Research on Japanese Place Names 28 CHAPTER 3: THE PHYSICAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF IZUMO REGION 36 CHAPTER 4: REVIEW OF PLACE NAMES IN IZUMO REGIONS 49 4-1. Review of Historical Place Names 49 4-2. Physical Place Names 55 CHAPTER 5: RECONSTRUCTING THE PAST BY USING PLACE NAMES 67 5-1. Reconstruction of Historical Landscapes 67 5-2. Yago--Names of Individual Households 85 5-3. Reconstruction Of Former River Channels Using Place Names . 88 CHAPTER 6: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 112 BIBLIOGRAPHY 115 III LIST OF TABLES Page Table 2-1. Chronology of Some Common Place Name Elements in Japan. 21 Table 4-1. List of Municipalities and Names of Gods Who Engaged in Reclaiming the Land 52 Table 4-2. Place Names of the Fudoki Era and their Names Today 53 Table 5-1. List of Place Names in Kami-Agu Village 74 Table 5-2. List of Yago in Kami Agu Village 76 Table 5-3. List of River-Related Place Names 95 Table 5-4. List of Oki Place Names in Izumo City 96 Table 5-5. List of Kami, Naka, and Shimo Element Place Names 97 Table 5-6. List of Hara, Para, Bara Element Place and Subdivision Place Names 98 iv LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 2-1. Model of Land Division Under the 12t1-System 22 Figure 2-2. Place Names of Remnants of the Old .IQLI-System, Shiga Prefecture 23 Figure 2-3. Model of Hierarchy of Administrative Divisions 24 Figure 2-4. Example of Systematic Renaming of Koaza 25 Figure 2-5. Example of Ainu-Origin Place Names 26 Figure 2-6. Tsuru Place Names in Japan 27 Figure 3-1. The Location of Shimane Prefecture in Japan 40 Figure 3-2. The Location of Izumo City and Hikawa Town 41 Figure 3-3. Altitudes in the lzumo Region 42 Figure 3-4. The Location of Shrines, Temples, and Burial Mounds during the Fudoki Era--A.D. 733 43 Figure 3-5. The Location of Shrines and Temples during Unyo-shi Era--A.D. 1717 44 Figure 3-6. Distribution of Prehistoric Remains 45 Figure 4-1. Land Registration Map of Shurimen Village 59 Figure 4-2. Distribution of ]I (,..) and Yama (iJ-) Place Names in Izumo City 60 Figure 4-3. Distribution of ]j (.) and Yama (ti.) Place Names in Hikawa Town 61 Figure 4-4. Development of lzumo Plain 62 Figure 4-5. Distribution of Prehistoric Remains in Izumo Region 63 Distribution of Hara and Place Names in lzurno City 64 Figure 4-6. (*) iaQ () . Figure 4-7. Distribution of Hara and JaQ (fl”) Place Names in Hikawa Town 65 Figure 5-1. The Location of Agu District in Hikawa Town 77 Figure 5-2. Political Map of lzumo during the Fudoki Era 78 Figure 5-3. Kami-Agu 79 Figure 5-4. Land Registration Map of Agu Village 80 Figure 5-5. Simplified Map of Land Registration of Kami-Agu 81 Figure 5-6. Distribution of Households by Type of Yago in Kami-Agu 82 Figure 5-7. Distribution of River-related Place Names in Izumo City 99 Figure 5-8. Distribution of River-related Place Names in Hikawa Town 100 Figure 5-9. Geomorphology in the Izumo Plain 101 Figure 5-10. Old Map of lzumo Plain--A.D. 650 (?) 102 Figure 5-11. Districts in lzumo City 103 Figure 5-12. Former River Channels and Shore Lines during the Fudoki Era . 104 Figure 5-1 3. Distribution of River-related Place Names in Tobigasu, Takaharna, Kawato, Yotsugane, and Takamatsu Districts in Izumo City 105 Figure 5-14. Model of.QkI Place Names 106 Figure 5-15. Distribution of Qici Place Names in Izumo City 107 v LIST OF FIGURES. Continued: Page Figure 5-16. Chronological Occurrences of Place names in Various Documents . 108 Figure 5-17. Distribution of Place Names with Kami (), Naka (tv), or Shimo ( f. ) Elements 109 Figure 5-18. Hara Q) and Subdivision Place Names 110 Figure 5-19. Model of River Course Change and Subdivision Place Names . 111 vi LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS Page Photograph 1. Izumo Plain, Looking Northward 46 Photograph 2. Pine Hedges on Izumo Plain 47 Photograph 3. Close-up of Pine Hedges 48 Photograph 4. Bronze Daggers Recovered at Koji-Dani Site in Hikawa Town . 66 Photograph 5. Jhohira Yama 83 Photograph 6. Agu Shrine, Looking Southward 84 VII ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am deeply indebted to Professor Richard Copley, my thesis supervisor, for his encouragement, guidance, and support in the completion of this thesis. I also express my sincere thanks to my other committee member, Dr. David Edgington, for his insightful comments and inspiration. Special thanks are due Professor Masyoshi Kusaka of Tokushima Bunri University, and Mr. Mitsuaki Sugitani, Head of Hikawa Town Board of Education. Thanks are due Mr. and Mrs. Wang Yaolin for editing and drawing maps. I would also like to express my gratitude to my parents, Kosei and Toshie Yamamoto, and especially to my fiance, Joe Pidutti, for their continued encouragement and patience; without them, my thesis would not have been possible. VIII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1-1. The Objective of the Thesis and Research Methods At some point in their lives, most individuals have pondered the names of places in the land in which they were born. Common to many of these deliberations is an interest in an area’s history and development. It is not unusual, then, that the history or origin of place names has become a topic of interest and conversation. It also comes as little surprise that as a field of study, place names attracts scholars from a variety of disciplines. Although many people in Japan show a deep interest in Place names, many traditional place names have been lost from official documents and even from common usage. This has happened in spite of the fact that many of these lost names were replete with more than a thousand year’s history and related messages of the land in their very names. Still, apart from famous temples or statues of Buddha, place names in Japan seem somehow destined to be treated without due respect, possibly because to the local people, they appear immaterial, or perhaps as a result of their familiarity; but in any case, “...traditional place names have been slaughtered ... it is becoming almost impossible to return to the former state” (Tanigawa, 1988). Recent modernization, especially after the beginning of the Meiji Period until present time, has allowed Japan to make unparalleled economic progress and enjoy remarkable accomplishments. However, Japan’s modernization did not come without a price. Traditional customs, culture, language in Japan and so on inevitably are affected by modernization’s effect on traditional place names. Many traditional place names were erased mainly by consolidations of lower divisions of cities, towns, and villages during 2 the Meiji Period1 and thereafter, after the World War Two when almost all Japanese 2 The improvement of Address System Law, which was carried cities had to be rebuilt. out in 1962, also led to the loss of many place names. The main purpose of the law was to improve the convenience of official procedures.