 In 1858, just after the first commercial agreement had been concluded between Japan and the United States, there was still fierce contention in Japan between those who favoured opening up the country to the outside world and those wanting to keep foreigners out. The explorer Matsuura Takeshiro was concerned about the possibility of Russian encroachment south into Japan. On 24 January by the old lunar calendar then still current, equivalent to 9 March by the modern calendar, he set off from Hakodate on his sixth expedition into Hokkaido. Matsuura had exceptional powers of endurance but he was already forty one years old. Evidently aware of his declining physical capacity, he left behind a will with a preface saying that he was prepared to meet his death. The expedition proved to be his last. |
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| He travelled on foot via Sapporo, Bibai and Biei to Obihiro and then on through Shiranuka to Kushiro, which he reached on 23 March (6 May). From there he crossed via Bihoro to Abashiri and Shari on the Sea of Okhotsk, climbed the peak at Lake Mashu and returned to Akkeshi on the Pacific coast. After rounding Cape Nosappu, he passed through Shibetsu to reach Rausu on 5 May (15 June). From there he went by boat around the coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula and in the evening of 13 May, (23 June by the modern calendar) he arrived at Tokoro on the Sea of Okhotsk. The following day he set off up the Tokoro River in a boat with local Ainu people, obtaining lodging for the night at an Ainu house in Kutoichannai, near what is now Fukuyama. He continued upstream the next day, occasionally leaving the boat to use the old river bed as a path. He stayed the night at another Ainu house in Muikotsune, near what is now East Number 8 Line in Kitami. On 16 May (26 June), he went further up the river, past what is now the area behind Kitami Station - Minami Nakamachi or Izumimachi (according to Suzuki Saburo's Pioneers of the Tokoro River) - to reach a place called Heteukoi, now Nakanoshima Park, where the Mukagawa River branches off from the Tokoro River. |
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| There were four houses on the north bank of the river. Matsuura left a detailed description of the families and their lives, of which the following is an extract: |
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[Head of household Yaehaku, aged 46; wife Yosare; eldest daughter Koretoshi; son Etokoan; younger daughter Monshunoi; younger male cousin, Emui; a family of six living together. However both Koretoshi and Monshunoi taken away six or seven years ago to Soya, where they fell sick and died. Etokoan and Emui also taken to Rishiri last year and no word since. Only the old couple left in the house.] |
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| In other words, the two daughters (one may have been the wife's younger sister) were forcibly taken six or seven years earlier by agents of Japanese concession holders to work as labourers at the fisheries at Soya. There they were said to have become sick and died. The son and his cousin had been forced to go to work on Rishiri Island the previous year. There had been no word from them since, so the old couple were left on their own. |
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| The female head of another household, Toesanmatsu, blind, more than sixty
years old. Two younger family members taken off to Rishiri the previous
year, leaving behind just two girls, twelve and eight years old. The house
falling down, butterbur leaves stuffed into holes to try and keep out the
rain and cold, the family getting by as best they could, according to Matsuura's
account. |
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| The records of Matsuura's journeys through Hokkaido contain clear accounts of Ainu people from several places being carried off by Japanese agents to work as forced labour, their lives cut short, women abused, the elderly and children left behind to lives of misery. They make clear Matsuura's anger at what he saw and were his attempt to influence the Shogunate authorities to remedy policies which allowed such practices. He went on to warn that as long as cruel treatment of the Ainu by Japanese in Hokkaido persisted, Ainu would feel sympathetic towards the Russians, then threatening to move down from the north. |
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Matsuura continued on up the Mukagawa River and had his midday meal at Kunnemakunbetsu, near the present West No. 10 Line. There he crossed over the Mukagawa River to Kunnefu, what is now Hokko. He then followed the banks of the Tokoro River up to Sharikishinai, now known as Sarakishinai, which leads in to Kaisei. He went further on up the banks of the Tokoro River to Kuttarushibe and camped there. That place is now Hinode in Kunneppu, where the Oromushi River branches off. On the following day, 17 May (27 June), Matsuura headed back downstream, but he recorded names of places further up that he had heard from the Ainu, such as Oromushi, Ketonai and Oketoshi. During his journey Matsuura shared food obtained from the Ainu and in exchange gave them goods such as rice, tobacco, needles and thread. |
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| (from the Kitami City Newsletter, July 1994) |