Shiranushi

Shiranushi was a Japanese frontier settlement and trading post at the southernmost point of the island of Sakhalin.
The settlement's original Ainu name was Sirar-anusi.

History

Shiranushi was an ancient Ainu chashi site before the arrival of Japanese settlers. According to local Ainu legend, a korpokkur village had once existed there.
The Matsumae Domain had been active around Shiranushi since the 17th century. In 1636, Matsumae samurai Kōdō Shōzaemon wintered over at Shiranushi.
In 1751, the samurai Katō Kahē founded a fishing village at Shiranushi. In 1790, the Matsumae authorities sent the samurai Takahashi Seizaemon to establish an observation post on Sakhalin. Takahashi expanded the village of Shiranushi with a blockhouse and an administrative office. The settlement had a small samurai garrison.
Shiranushi was visited by the cartographer Mamiya Rinzō in 1808.
In 1857, the Japanese government moved their Sakhalin headquarters north to Maoka in response to the encroachment of Nikolay Rudanovsky. Declining in military and commercial significance, Shiranushi later became a ghost town.