View source for Mishihase

{{Short description|Ancient ethnic group of Japan}}
{{redirect-distinguish|Shukushin|Shakushain}}
{{Refimprove|date=February 2008}}
The {{nihongo|'''Mishihase'''|粛填}}, also read as '''Ashihase''' and '''Shukushin''', were a people of ancient [[Japan]], believed to have lived along the northern portion of the coast of the [[Sea of Japan]]. The term [[Sushen]], rendered 肅愼, is found in Chinese records, but is annotated as Mishihase or Ashihase in [[Japanese language]] documents, which should have developed into *''Mishiwase'' or *''Ashiwase'' in modern Japanese if the word had survived in colloquial speech.

According to the ''[[Nihon Shoki]]'', the Mishihase first arrived at [[Sado Island]] during the reign of [[Emperor Kinmei]]. In 660, Japanese General [[Abe no Hirafu]] defeated the Mishihase in ''"Watarishima"'' at the request of the native inhabitants. During the [[Edo period]], [[Arai Hakuseki]] proposed that Watarishima was [[Ezo]], which was later renamed [[Hokkaido]]. The battle place was recorded as the mouth of a large river, which is proposed to be [[Ishikari River]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www5.hokkaido-np.co.jp/motto/20021109/qa3.html|script-title=ja:Ｑ 奥尻島の意味は|language=Japanese|publisher=[[Hokkaido Shimbun]]|date=November 9, 2002|accessdate=January 31, 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719125602/http://www5.hokkaido-np.co.jp/motto/20021109/qa3.html|archivedate=July 19, 2011}}</ref>

Some historians consider that the Mishihase were identical to the [[Tungusic peoples|Tungusic]] Sushen in Chinese records,<ref>{{cite book|last= Reider|first= Noriko T.|title= Japanese Demon Lore: Oni from Ancient Times to the Present|url= https://archive.org/details/JapaneseDemonLore/page/n47/mode/2up|year= 2010|isbn= 978-0-87421-794-0|page=21|publisher= University Press of Colorado}}</ref> but others think that the [[Japanese people]] named the indigenous people in the northeast based on their knowledge of Chinese records, just as the Chinese did during the [[Three Kingdoms]] period. Most, including Kisao Ishizuki (1979) of the [[Sapporo University]], suggest that the Mishihase were the [[Nivkh people|Nivkhs]] belonging to the [[Okhotsk culture]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://kamuimintara.net/detail.php?rskey=21198707t01|script-title=ja:オホーツク文化人とモヨロ貝塚 網走|work=Kamuimintara|publisher=Rinyu Kanko|date=August 1987|accessdate=January 31, 2011|language=Japanese}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Ethnic groups in Japan}}

[[Category:Tribes of ancient Japan]]
[[Category:Oni]]

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