Abstract
There are main four types of place names given to mountain passes in Japan, namely “-tawa, ” “_ngoe, ” “-saka” and “-tô-nge.” Each of these place -names has a great many examples and is distributed more widely than other names of mountain passes, the number of which is as many as 60. Their distribution in terms of altitude is shown in Fig. 1, “-saka” being situated at the lowest altitude and “-ngoe” the highest. The names of “ctawa, ” “tao” and “tô-nge” mean the concaved forms of mountain ridges and the two of the former are older than the latter in origin. “-ngoe” means to “pass over, ” and “saka” a declined slope, and also the former is older than the latter in origin. These four types were originated in Japan in the following order. At first “-tawa” or “tao, ” then “-ngoe, ” thirdly “-saka” and finally “-tô-nge.”
The author gained this information of their developments from the fact of their distributions in Fig. 1-3. In Fig. 1, such place names as “-tao, ” “-tawa” and “-to” are distributed in the areas to the north or south of the Seto Inland Sea. These areas are of cultivated lands since the most ancient times. In Fig. 3 it can be pointed out that “-ngoe” is distributed around the districts above mentioned. In Fig. 3, one can see “-saka” distributed around the Kinki District which is the eastern-most of the land series of the Seto Inland Sea. In this district developed was Yamato Dynasty inheriting Izumo culture that thrived in the area to the north of the Inland Sea. Finaly “-tô-nge” was developed mainly in 4 regions shown. in Fig. 4.
Fig. 4 is the density map of all the place names given to mountain passes. Densely distributed areas are found in low-altitude mountains and hill lands rather than high-altitude mountains. In this map one can divide them in to three districts: Hokkaido, north-eastern Japan and south-western Japan; the latter the denser.
