Kawakami

Kawakami denotes the upper Kushiro River country of eastern Ezo, including the districts around Shibecha and Teshikaga. Long before a Japanese district administration existed, Ainu settlements, or kotan, stood along the river. Dugout canoes carried people between them, linking inland hunting grounds and fishing waters with the Pacific coast. The river was therefore a route through inhabited country, rather than an empty corridor awaiting settlement.

In 1783 the Kushiro trading and fishing place, then called Kusuri, was opened under the direct authority of the Matsumae lord. Eastern Ezo passed to direct shogunal administration in 1799. The name Shibecha and that of nearby Ponbetsu appear in the 1806 map of eastern and western Ezo. Local historical accounts describe trading posts on the river where eagle tail feathers, dried salmon, bear skins and bear liver from upstream were exchanged for household necessities. This commerce brought Japanese merchants and officials progressively inland while relying on Ainu products and river knowledge. Kawakami's early modern setting is thus the Kushiro watershed and its trading relationships; the later district name should not imply an earlier Japanese town.