is a river in
Shinhidaka,
Hokkaidō,
Japan. The Shizunai River drains from the
Hidaka Mountains into the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
.
Etymology
The Shizunai River was known as Shibuchari and Shibechari. This name was derived from ''Shipe-ichan'', meaning "a salmon spawning place" in
Ainu.
[Nippon-Kichi](_blank)
静内川 Shizunai-gawa The Shizunai River, last access 26 May 2008
The name Shizunai is derived from the Ainu language and has three possible sources:
[, ]
* ''Shiputnai'' – A marsh at the origin of the Ainu.
* ''Shuttonai'' – A marsh with many grapes.
* ''Shutnai'' – A river at the foot of a mountain.
Course
The Shizunai River flows generally southwest from its headwaters in the Hidaka mountains at the confluence of the
Koikakushushibichari and
Koibokushushibichari rivers. It flows into , a reservoir created by the
Takami Dam. Past the dam, the Shizunai river flows into . Past the Shizunai Dam, the river encounters Futa Dam before leaving the mountains for the flood plain. The river flows past the outlying communities of Shizunai before entering the Pacific Ocean just northwest of Shizunai harbor.
Natural history
The Shizunai River was designated as a wildlife protection area in 1965.
Whooper swan
The whooper swan ( /ˈhuːpə(ɹ) swɒn/) (''Cygnus cygnus''), also known as the common swan, pronounced ''hooper swan'', is a large northern hemisphere swan. It is the Eurasian counterpart of the North American trumpeter swan, and the type speci ...
s overwinter on the Shizunai River.
History
The Shizunai River basin was the home of the Ainu leader who led
Shakushain's revolt against the Shogunate-era
Yamato people
The (or the )David Blake Willis and Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu''Transcultural Japan: At the Borderlands of Race, Gender and Identity,'' p. 272: "“Wajin,” which is written with Chinese characters that can also be read “Yamato no hito” (Ya ...
, especially the
Matsumae clan
The was a Japanese clan that was confirmed in the possession of the area around Matsumae, Hokkaidō as a march fief in 1590 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and charged with defending it, and by extension the whole of Japan, from the Ainu "barbarians" ...
, in the 1660s. In the
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...
the region was used for
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
mining.
Lists
List of bridges and dams
From river mouth to source:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
List of (named) tributaries
From river mouth to source:
# Left —
# Right — Perari River
# Left — ''charcoal or coal mountain river''
# Left — Shunbetsu River
# Right — Poyoppusawa River
# Right — Pisenaisawa River
# Left — Penkeonikemushi River
# Left — Ponpanbetsu Creek
# Left — Penkebetsusawa River
# Left — Porokaunnai River
# Right — Ibetsusawa River
# Right — Abeunnai River
# Confluence Left — Koibokushuchchari, Right — Koikakushuppichari
References
* Brett L. Walker, The Conquest of Ainu Lands, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2001,
* , , , No year of publication.
Nippon-Kichi 静内川 Shizunai-gawa The Shizunai River, 12 July 2007, last access 26 May 2008
{{Rivers of Japan
Rivers of Hokkaido
Rivers of Japan