Chikapunotsu Cape

Chikapunotsu Cape projects into the sea along northern Hokkaido, within the island world once known in Japanese as Ezo. Sea travel made this coast part of a much larger region: Hokkaido, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands lie within the northern archipelago, where currents, seasonal winds and short navigable seasons shape movement. For communities along the shore, fishing, hunting and boats connected settlements whose inland terrain might otherwise be difficult to cross. The cape also gives a fixed landmark for vessels following the coast. Ezo gained its Japanese name as a term for lands and peoples northeast of Honshu. It appears in a Japanese text in 1153 for non-Japanese people of the northeast and by 1485 for the northern islands. Japanese accounts later divided Ezo into Wajinchi, areas of Japanese settlement around the Oshima Peninsula, and Ezochi, the wider Ainu lands. The cape therefore lies at the meeting of Ainu coastal life, Japanese knowledge of the northern islands and maritime routes across cold waters.