Rebun 礼文町

• Rebun comes from the Ainu repun-sir (レプンシリ), "offshore island," also recorded as repuy-sir. The Hokkaido Government's Ainu place-name list gives this meaning its highest confidence rating, A.²⁹ The list's source, the place-name scholar Yamada Hidezō (山田秀三), suggests the name arose because Rebun lies farther out to sea than Rishiri. He also wondered why Rishiri kept the -shiri ("island") in Japanese while Rebun lost it, and guessed that the kanji spelling would have been too long.²⁹ The town and the tourist association give the same meaning, "offshore island" (沖の島).²³⁰

• The same word repun ("offshore") appears in Rebunge (礼文華) in Toyoura and in a Rebun area of Rausu.²⁹

• Kafuka (香深), the port town, may come from kap-kay, but the list rates this reading C, the lowest level, and Yamada called it hard to explain. He suggested the name moved here from nearby Kafukai (香深井). He believed the site of present-day Kafuka was once called Tonnai (トンナイ, probably to-un-nay, roughly "stream with a lake").³¹ Tonnai is still the local address: the town hall stands at 字トンナイ.⁹

• Shiretoko (知床), the island's southern tip, is sir-etok, "the land's projecting end," meaning a cape. The list rates this reading A.³² The list gives the same derivation for the Shiretoko Peninsula on the mainland.³²

• The town's online heritage museum lists many other Ainu names still used as local place names:³³

  • Kitousu (起登臼), from kito-us, "where wild garlic (行者ニンニク) grows"
  • Nairo (内路), from nay-oro, "place with a stream"
  • Uedomari (上泊), from wen-tomari, "bad landing"
  • Shirahama (白浜), from retar-ota, "white sand beach"
  • Funbenefu (奮部), from humpe, "whale"
  • Sashitoji (差閉), from チャシトンス. This name may contain chasi, the Ainu word for a fort (unverified).

  The museum also notes that tomari ("anchorage") was a Japanese word taken into Ainu. It sees this as a sign of close contact between the Ainu and the Japanese (Wajin) in the Edo period.³³

• Jomon period (about 4,000 years ago). The Funadomari site lies on a dune between Funadomari Bay and Lake Kushu. The Rebun Board of Education excavated it in 1998 and found houses, workshops for making shell beads, and graves.²⁶²⁵ Grave goods included beads made from Stimpson's hard clam (ビノスガイ), bird-bone tube beads and pendants of jade. Cone and cowrie shells from southern seas and jade and asphalt from Niigata show that people traded over long distances.³⁴²⁵ In 2019, remains from the site's graves were used for a genome study.³⁵ The Uedomari 3 site (上泊3遺跡), excavated in 1984, is the island's oldest Jomon settlement site.¹⁶

• Okhotsk culture (about 1,500 years ago). The Okhotsk culture was based on fishing and hunting at sea.³⁴ The "ancient" section of the town's online heritage museum, which covers this period, features the dune sites of Hamanaka 2 (浜中2遺跡) and Kafukai 5 (香深井5遺跡).³⁶³⁷ Finds include:³⁶

  • a female figure carved from a sperm-whale tooth, with an animal, probably a bear, carved at her hip
  • a buckle-like belt ornament made from reindeer antler
  • a spatula made of whale bone

  A second whale-tooth figure of a woman and a bear, said to have been found near Funadomari Bay, became a Hokkaido tangible cultural property in 1972.¹⁶

• Ainu period and Matsumae trade. Written records and old maps show that Ainu lived on Rebun about 400 years ago, fishing and trading with the Wajin.³⁴ In 1685 the Matsumae Domain opened the Soya trading post (宗谷場所) and attached Rebun and Rishiri to it.⁶ In 1804 the manager working for the post's merchant contractor brought a Benten shrine over from Matsumae. It became today's Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社).³⁸

• Herring and settlement. The first settler is said to be Yanagiya Mannosuke (柳谷万之助), from Minmaya (三厩) in the Tsugaru district of today's Aomori Prefecture. He arrived in 1846 and opened fishing grounds.⁶³⁹ Other Tsugaru migrants followed, including Komaya Sanzō (駒谷三蔵), called "the King of Rebun" (礼文王), and the Miura family. The Miura family gave the Tsugaru-machi (津軽町) district its name.³⁹ The herring was dried, and the leftovers were pressed for oil and fertilizer.³⁹ In 1878 Rebun District was divided into four villages: Kanzaki, Funadomari, Kafuka and Shakunin.⁶

• Early 20th century. Mail steamers linked Otaru, Wakkanai and the islands from 1885.⁶ Kafuka got electric lighting in 1919, for about 1,000 homes, and a shared bus began running between Kafuka and Funadomari in 1931.⁶ Drift ice reached the island in 1939 and did heavy damage to the fishery.⁶

• Postwar. On 9 May 1948, teams from several countries observed an annular solar eclipse at Kitousu. The town's museum describes the effort as mainly Japanese and American.⁶¹⁶ In 1954 echinococcosis, then called "the strange disease of Rebun Island," became a public-health concern. A full campaign against the small animals that spread it followed.⁶ Large fires in Kafuka destroyed 56 buildings in 1954 and 67 in 1955.⁶

• Town and national park. The two villages merged in 1956, and Rebun became a town in 1959.⁶ The islands became a prefectural natural park in 1950, a quasi-national park in 1965, and part of Rishiri-Rebun-Sarobetsu National Park in 1974.⁶ Rebun Airport opened in 1978.⁶ Flights to Wakkanai ended on 31 March 2003, and the airport has been out of use since 2009.¹²⁴⁰ The 108-year-old ferry route from Otaru ended in 1993.¹²

• Conservation and tourism. The town's alpine plant cultivation center opened in 1987. In 2001, after 15 years of research, it got lab-grown Rebun lady's slipper orchids to flower.¹² A hot spring was struck in 2008 (240 L/min at 50.2 °C), and the Usuyuki no Yu bathhouse opened in September 2009.¹² The school building built as a film set for Kita no Kanaria-tachi (北のカナリアたち, 2012) opened in 2013 as Kita no Canaria Park.¹²⁴¹

• Recent events. In August 2014, rain heavy enough to occur about once in 50 years caused landslides that killed two people in the Takayama area. There were 115 incidents of damage across the island, and the disaster was given the "severe disaster" (激甚災害) designation.¹² In November 2016 the 1,489 m New Momoiwa Tunnel opened on the Motochi–Kafuka road.¹² Several district elementary schools closed between 1999 and 2016.¹²

• Landform. Rebun is a long, narrow island. Mt. Rebun (礼文岳, 490 m) is its highest point. The south and middle are mostly hills of 200–300 m that slope gently to the east coast. The west coast drops to the sea in steep cliffs cut by waves. Flat land is scarce, so the settlements are strung along the east shore.² The main settlements are Kafuka (香深), the ferry port and town center in the south, and Funadomari (船泊) in the north.²

• Lake Kushu (久種湖). The island's only lake covers 0.49 km², with a 3.0 km shoreline and a maximum depth of 5.2 m. It is described as the northernmost lake in Japan's administered territory and is known for its skunk cabbage (ミズバショウ).⁴²³⁰

• Capes and islets. Sukoton Cape is at 45°27′51″N. Todo-jima (海驢島) lies off the cape, and Sakhalin can be seen on clear days.²⁷ With luck, seals can be seen lying on the rocks near Kaneda-no-misaki (金田ノ岬).³⁰

• Protected nature. Two areas are Hokkaido natural monuments:¹⁶

  • the wild plants of the hills around Momoiwa, designated on 11 September 1959
  • the Rebun lady's slipper orchid colony at Tetsufu, designated on 3 June 1994

• Wildlife. Rebun has no brown bears or snakes.¹⁹ The last reliable record of the extinct Japanese sea lion came from Rebun in 1974.⁴³

• Climate. The warm Tsushima Current keeps winters mild for this latitude, and summers are cool. Strong wind is the main hardship, and drift ice seldom reaches the island.¹² The table shows figures from the JMA's Rebun weather station, which stands at 65 m.⁴⁴ Its normals cover only 2003–2020, and it does not measure snow.⁴⁵⁴⁶

  Measure	Value
  Mean annual temperature	6.9 °C45
  Warmest month (August)	19.7 °C mean45
  Coldest month (January)	−4.6 °C mean45
  Annual precipitation	1,049.1 mm45
  Annual sunshine	1,514.3 hours45
  Record high	30.5 °C, 31 July 2022 and 7 August 202146
  Record low	−17.1 °C, 8 February 201946
  Wettest day	164.0 mm, 7 August 202046
  Strongest gust	39.7 m/s, 2 October 201546

• Drift ice. Ice does occasionally come ashore. Examples include 1970, 1984, 1985 (fishing losses of about ¥329 million) and 1994. In March 2012, ice at Wakkanai port delayed and cancelled ferries.⁶¹²

• Fishing. Fishing is the main industry. In 2017 the two fishery cooperatives, Kafuka and Funadomari, landed 7,699 t worth about ¥3.59 billion.⁵ The largest catches were:⁵

  Catch (2017)	Weight	Value
  Hokke	3,651 t	¥1.02 billion
  Cod	1,645 t	¥302 million
  Sea cucumber	128 t	¥487 million
  Sea urchin (two categories, うに and のな)	85 t	¥842 million
  Octopus	262 t	¥109 million
  Kombu (natural and farmed)	104 t	¥325 million

  Registered fishing boats fell from 1,252 in 1998 to 685 in 2017.⁵ Fishing businesses fell from 660 in 1993 to 366 in 2013.⁵ The town says competition for fishing grounds and warmer seas are shrinking coastal stocks, and its fishers are growing older.²

• Jobs. At the 2015 Census, 36.3% of workers were in primary industry (almost all fishing), 12.5% in secondary and 51.1% in tertiary. In 1990 primary industry employed 46.5%.¹⁰

• Tourism. The town's 2019 profile says tourism had been falling since it peaked in fiscal 2002.² Figures come from two sources:

  • The town counted 176,440 visitors in 2008 and 125,903 in 2017, with 58,100 overnight stays in 2017.⁵
  • Hokkaido's survey counted 90,100 visitors in fiscal 2024, up from 82,800 the year before. About 75% (67,900) came from outside Hokkaido, and 51,400 stayed overnight. Visits peak in June (24,000) and July (21,400).⁴⁷
  • Foreign overnight guests numbered 1,914 in fiscal 2024; 985 of them were from Taiwan.⁴⁷

  The two series may not be counted the same way.

• Population and aging. In 2015, 34.0% of residents were 65 or older.¹⁰ The town's plans focus on "island bonds" (島の絆), meaning community ties and mutual support.² Efforts to attract visitors and new residents include:

  • a 2022 "workation" program that took visitors to hokke and kombu landings and to a cooking class run by the Kafuka fishery cooperative's women's group⁴⁸
  • the Ribbon Project (リボンプロジェクト), which sells alpine-flower ribbon badges to pay for natural-park repairs and the protection and propagation of alpine plants⁴⁹
  • a hometown-tax "travel voucher" (see below)⁵⁰

Where to shop:³⁰

• the Rebun omiyage center (礼文おみやげセンター) in Kafuka, with the Nakajima, Nakayama and New Katō stores
• the Kafuka and Funadomari fishery co-op Marine Stores
• Kaisenkan Kafuka (海鮮館かふか)
• Shima no Hito (島の人) in Funadomari

• Shikasago-mai procession (四ヶ散米舞行列). This procession leads the Itsukushima Shrine mikoshi each 15 July. It has been performed for more than 80 years and is the island's only traditional performing art. In 2015 it became the town's first designated intangible folk cultural property.¹⁶
• Shrines. The island has 18 shrines.³⁰ Most grew out of fishing families' shrines for safety at sea and good catches.³⁸
  • Itsukushima Shrine was the village shrine of old Kafuka. It began with the Benten shrine brought from Matsumae in 1804.³⁸
  • Rebun Shrine was the village shrine of Funadomari. Some say it began as a small shrine to the spirit of Lake Kushu in 1863.³⁸
  • You can get the goshuin (shrine seals) of both shrines at Itsukushima Shrine's office for ¥500.³⁰
  • Several shrines have unusual features. The Tsugaru-machi shrine has mounted warriors instead of guardian lion-dogs. The Awabikotan shrine grounds have a memorial to the fall of Port Arthur in the Russo-Japanese War.³⁸
• Monuments.¹⁶³⁰
  • At Momoiwa Observatory, a stone carved with a poem by Princess Takamatsu remembers the 1957 visit of Prince and Princess Takamatsu. The poem mentions the Rebun edelweiss.
  • At Kitousu, a monument marks the 1948 eclipse observation.
  • At the Todo-jima observatory (Funadomari), stones remember Zeniya Gohei (銭屋五兵衛), a Kaga merchant said in legend to have smuggled goods with Russia here, and the haiku poet Uemura Sengyo (上村占魚).
• Museum. The Rebun Town Local History Museum (礼文町郷土資料館) shows the Funadomari Important Cultural Property collection, Okhotsk-culture finds (including a replica of the whale-tooth figure) and herring-fishery material.¹⁶³⁰

Written records and old maps show that Ainu lived on Rebun about 400 years ago, fishing and trading with the Wajin.³⁴ Many district names come from Ainu (see Name origin).³³

The town's heritage museum retells three Ainu legends:⁵⁹

• the Momoiwa story (桃岩物語), set at the Shakunin kotan (village). The tourist association describes it as a fight between the Rebun Ainu and the Isoya Ainu.³⁴
• the Minai Shrine story (見内神社物語), about a woman who drifted to Kafukai on a raft from Teshio
• the Lake Kushu story (久種湖物語), about twin boys born in the Ōsawa settlement of Funadomari

Minai Shrine in Kafukai was founded because of such a legend. Its sacred object is a rock.³⁸ No Ainu cultural facility or living Ainu organization on the island was found in this research.

Japanese Wikipedia lists two domestic sister towns:⁵¹

• Ohasama (大迫町), Iwate Prefecture, now part of Hanamaki City
• Yutaka (豊町), Hiroshima Prefecture, now part of Kure City

This research could not confirm the years these ties began, or whether they still exist now that both towns have merged into larger cities.

The town's own website describes a friendship agreement with another island town:

• Yonaguni (与那国町), Okinawa Prefecture: friendship exchange agreement signed on Yonaguni on 30 November 2019. The link began in 1990, when a TV program had Sukoton Elementary School send a snowman to Hikawa Elementary School on Yonaguni. The two schools later became sister schools. A trial awamori has since been made at a Yonaguni distillery with water from Rebun.⁷²

No international sister city was found.

• Yanagiya Mannosuke (柳谷万之助): from Minmaya in Tsugaru. Remembered as Rebun's first settler (1846), he opened its fishing grounds.³⁹⁶
• Komaya Sanzō (駒谷三蔵): a herring-fishery operator from Tsugaru, known as "the King of Rebun."³⁹
• Mukose Kanzaburō (向瀬貫三郎): first head of Rebun Village (1956) and first mayor of Rebun Town (1959). He was made an honorary citizen in 1976.⁶
• Yanagiya Seizō (柳谷誠三): a physician, made the town's honorary citizen in 1971.⁶