Tokachi River

Tokachi River 十勝川, Ainu: Tokapci
Iwamatsu Dam in Shimizu (September 2007)
Native name	Tokachi-gawa (Japanese)
Location
Country	Japan
State	Hokkaidō
Region	Tokachi
District	Kamikawa, Nakagawa
Municipalities	Shintoku, Toyokoro
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Shintoku, Hokkaidō, Japan
Mouth	Pacific Ocean
• location	Toyokoro, Hokkaidō, Japan
• elevation	0 m (0 ft)
Length	156 km (97 mi)
Basin size	9,010 km2 (3,480 sq mi)
Discharge
• average	71 m3/s (2,500 cu ft/s)

Tokachi River (十勝川, Tokachi-gawa) is a river in Hokkaidō, Japan.

Etymology

In 1820, the explorer Takeshiro Matsuura (松浦 武四郎) proposed "Tokachi" as the name of the surrounding Tokachi Province, with each character corresponding to a Japanese homophone. The province was named after this river, which in turn was derived from the Ainu language word "tokapci".

Although the exact origins of "tokapci" were unknown, Hidezo Yamada, an Ainu language researcher, proposed these origins:

• tokap-usi ("breast, somewhere")
• toka-o-pci ("swamp, around a place, either")

42°41′42″N 143°39′58″E / 42.6950°N 143.6661°E / 42.6950; 143.6661