Chitose

Chitose lies on the Ishikari plain of Hokkaido, near Lake Shikotsu. The earlier place name Shikotsu comes from an Ainu word associated with a large hollow or valley. Salmon ascending the Chitose River were important to Ainu communities, while the surrounding landscape connected the Pacific and Sea of Japan sides of the island.

In the Edo period this crossing was known as the Shikotsu route. Ainu and Japanese traders exchanged salmon and other goods at trading places in the district; in the later Edo period the area was incorporated into the Yūfutsu trading district, with a trading office on the Chitose River.