Repunmoshiri

Repunmoshiri is the Ainu name of the Chirpoy islands, a pair of uninhabited volcanic islands between Simushir and Urup in the middle of the Kuril chain. The name means "place of many small birds". The larger northern island is Chirpoy and the smaller southern one Brat Chirpoyev, which the Russians later called the Black Brothers. Fog, strong currents and rough weather isolate them, yet boats of the Ainu, who lived across the archipelago, linked such islands for fishing, sea hunting and exchange.

Chirpoy already appears on a map of the territories of the Matsumae domain dated 1644, and the Tokugawa shogunate confirmed Matsumae's holdings in 1715. From 1756 the islands were administered from Matsumae's office on Kunashir, and in 1801 the Japanese government formally claimed them for Ezo. Meanwhile Russian Cossacks, who landed on Shumshu in 1711, pushed down the chain from the north, and Ainu guides, interpreters and traders stood between the two powers.