Ezo

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File:Mallet-TerredeGesso.png
Map of the "Land of Iesso" by French cartographer Alain Manesson Mallet (1683)

Script error: No such module "Nihongo". is the Japanese term historically used to refer to the people and the lands to the northeast of the Japanese island of Honshu.[1] This included the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido,[2][3][4][5] which changed its name from "Ezo" to "Hokkaidō" in 1869,[6] and sometimes included Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.[2][3] The word Ezo means 'the shrimp barbarians' in Japanese.[7][8]

In reference to the people of that region, the same two kanji used to write the word Ezo can also be read Emishi. The descendants of these people are most likely related to the Ainu people of today.[9]

Etymology

Japanese sources that include an etymology describe Ezo as probably originally a borrowing from the Ainu word Script error: No such module "lang". meaning Template:Gloss.[2][4][5][3] The term is first attested in Japanese in a text from 1153 in reference to any of the non-Japanese people living in the northeast of Honshū, and then later in 1485 in reference to the northern islands where these people lived, primarily Hokkaido, Karafuto (i.e. Sakhalin), and the Kuril Islands.[2][3]

The kanji spelling is based on the meanings of the characters rather than the phonetics (jukujikun), and is composed of the characters Script error: No such module "Lang". meaning Template:Gloss and Script error: No such module "Lang". meaning Template:Gloss. The use of the character for Template:Gloss might be in reference to the long "whiskers" (antennae) of these animals, alluding to the prominent beards worn by Ainu men.

The spelling Yezo reflects its pronunciation c.Template:TrimScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., when Europeans first came in contact with Japan. It is this historical spelling that is reflected in the scientific Latin term Script error: No such module "Lang"., as in Fragaria yezoensis and Porphyra yezoensis. However, there are species that use a different spelling, such as the Japanese scallop known as Script error: No such module "Nihongo"..

History

File:Nine years in Nipon. Sketches of Japanese life and manners (1888) (14768210855).jpg
1888 map of Japan, with Hokkaido labelled "Yesso"

The first published description of Ezo in the West was brought to Europe by Isaac Titsingh in 1796. His small library of Japanese books included Script error: No such module "Nihongo". by Hayashi Shihei.[10] This book, which was published in Japan in 1785, described the Ezo region and its people.[11]

In 1832, the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland supported the posthumous abridged publication of Titsingh's French translation of Script error: No such module "lang"..[12] Julius Klaproth was the editor, completing the task which was left incomplete by the death of the book's initial editor, Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat.

Subdivisions

Script error: No such module "Nihongo". or Script error: No such module "Nihongo". (Template:Lit) was divided into several districts. The first was the Wajinchi, or 'Japanese Lands', which covered the Japanese settlements on and around the Oshima Peninsula. The rest of Ezo was known as the Script error: No such module "Nihongo". (Template:Lit), or 'Ainu Lands'. There were also Japanese people who moved from other places to the coastal areas of Ezochi. Ezochi was in turn divided into three sections: North Ezochi, which covered southern Sakhalin; West Ezochi, which included the northern half of Hokkaidō; and East Ezochi, which included the populous southern and eastern Hokkaidō and the Kuril Islands.[13]

See also

Notes

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  1. Harrison, John A., "Notes on the discovery of Ezo", Annals of the Association of American Geographers Vol. 40, No. 3 (Sep., 1950), pp. 254–266 [1]
  2. a b c d Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. a b c d Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  5. a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Ezo" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 184.
  7. Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  8. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. WorldCat, Sangoku Tsūran Zusetsu; alternate romaji Sankoku Tsūran Zusetsu
  11. Cullen, Louis M. (2003). Template:Trim&pg=PA137 A History of Japan, 1582-1941: Internal and External Worlds, p. 137., p. 137, at Google Books
  12. Klaproth, Julius. (1832). Template:Trim&pg=PA181 San kokf tsou ran to sets, ou Aperçu général des trois royaumes, pp. 181-255., p. 181, at Google Books
  13. Frey, Christopher J. (2007) Template:Trim&pg=PA5 Ainu Schools and Education Policy in Nineteenth-century Hokkaido, Japan p.5, p. 5, at Google Books

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References

External links

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