(also spelled Yezo or Yeso) is the Japanese term historically used to refer to the lands to the north of the Japanese island of Honshu. It included the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, which changed its name from "Ezo" to "Hokkaidō" in 1869, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)
"Ezo"
in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 184. and sometimes included Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. The same two kanji used to write the word "Ezo", which literally mean "

shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

barbarians" in Chinese, can also be read in the Japanese language as "

Emishi The (also called Ebisu and Ezo), written with Chinese characters that literally mean "shrimp barbarians," constituted an ancient ethnic group of people who lived in parts of Honshū, especially in the Tōhoku region, referred to as in contemp ...

", the name given to the indigenous people of these lands, the descendants of whom are most likely related to the

Ainu people The Ainu are the indigenous people of the lands surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, including Hokkaido Island, Northeast Honshu Island, Sakhalin Island, the Kuril Islands, the Kamchatka Peninsula and Khabarovsk Krai, before the arrival of the Y ...

Etymology

The two kanji in Ezo ( 蝦夷) literally mean "shrimp barbarians" and the term meant "foreigner", referring to the Ainu lands to the north, which the Japanese named "Ezo-chi" (蝦夷地). In contrast, the Japanese-occupied lands to the South were referred to as "Wajin-chi" ( 和人地).Editors: David N. Livingstone and Charles W. J. Withers (1999) "Geography and Enlightenment", University of Chicago Press, page 20

/ref> The spelling "Yezo" reflects its pronunciation , when Europeans first came in contact with Japan. It is this historical spelling that is reflected in the scientific Latin term ''yezoensis'', as in ''

Fragaria yezoensis ''Fragaria yezoensis'' is a species of wild strawberry native to the eastern side of the Japanese island of Hokkaidō, and the adjacent Kuril Islands and Sakhalin in Russia. It is of no economic value. Some botanists include the very similar '' ...

'' and ''

Porphyra yezoensis ''Porphyra'' is a genus of coldwater seaweeds that grow in cold, shallow seawater. More specifically, it belongs to red algae phylum of laver species (from which comes laverbread), comprising approximately 70 species.Brodie, J.A. and Irvine, ...

''. However, there are species that use the new spelling such as the Japanese scallop known as .

History

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 by Hayashi Shihei. This book, which was published in Japan in 1785, described the Ezo region and its people. In 1832, the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland supported the posthumous abridged publication of Titsingh's French translation of . 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

or (lit., "Island of the Ezo") 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 (lit., "Ezo-land"), or Ainu Lands. 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 Hokkaidō and the Kuril Islands.Frey, Christopher J. (2007)

Notes

References

* Cullen, Louis M. (2003)
''A History of Japan, 1582-1941: Internal and External Worlds.''
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ;
OCLC 50694793
* Hayashi, Shihei. (1786). . Edo: Manuscript
OCLC 44014900
* Klaproth, Julius. (1832). ''San kokf tsou ran to sets, ou Aperçu général des trois royaumes.'' Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland
OCLC 2563166
''also'
OCLC 561284561

External links