Menashi District, Hokkaido


Menashi is a district located in Nemuro Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. As of 2010, its population is estimated at 6,069 and its area is 397.88 km2, with a population density of 15.3/km2 The origin of the name "Menashi" comes from the Ainu word menashi, meaning "to the east". The local government in Nemuro, which includes Shiretoko and The Northern Territories, decided to name the whole region "Menashi". Menashi’s only town is Rausu. The district was one of the settings of the Menashi-Kunashiri Battle of 1789.

Towns

During the Edo period, the ruling Tokugawa shōgun allowed the Matsumae clan to settle in the Menashi region, which was then named Nemuro. According to the Matsumae clan's Chronicles of Shiragi, from the first year of the Genna era to about Genna 7 the region's inhabitants traded with the Matsumae clan, noting that the Matsumae received 100 small boats worth of eagle feathers and sea otter pelts.
In the first year of the Kansei Era the native inhabitants rebelled in Kunashiri and Menashi resulting in the Kansei-Ezo Uprising and the deaths of a large number of Japanese people It was during this time that Rausu Onsen was discovered.
Toward the end of the Edo period, Menashi was a part of the general East Ezo region. The shōgun assumed control and established more of a presence in the Menashi region around 1799 due to Russia's menacing southern expansion policies. Menashi was then briefly returned to the jurisdiction of the Matsumae clan in c. 1821 In c. 1855 Menashi fell under the domain of the shōgun once again via the Aizu clan, who ruled the area severely. It was during the Ansei era that Rausu Shrine was established.

Other notable dates