Shibetsu

Shibetsu lies on the shore of the strait facing Kunashiri, in a district formerly known as Menashi. Salmon sustained its Ainu communities, whose trade reached beyond the coast. The name Shibetsu has been explained from Ainu words for a great river or a place rich in salmon. In the late eighteenth century Japanese merchants established fisheries here, and harsh treatment of Ainu workers helped provoke the Kunashiri-Menashi uprising of 1789. A road across the mountains to Shari was opened in 1810.