EzoEzo Ezo The same two kanji used to write the word "Ezo", which literally mean "shrimp barbarians" in Chinese, can also be read in the Japanese language as "Emishi", the name given to the indigenous people of these lands, the descendants of whom are most likely related to the Ainu people. Etymology. is a Japanese word meaning "foreigner" and referred to the Ainu lands to the north, which the Japanese named "Ezo-chi". The spelling "Yezo" reflects its pronunciation , when Europeans first came in contact with Japan. It is this historical spelling that is reflected in the scientific Latin term "yezoensis , as in Fragaria yezoensis" and "Porphyra yezoensis". However, there are species that use the new spelling such as the Japanese scallop known as . History. The first published description of Ezo in the West was brought to Europe by Isaac Titsingh in 1796. His small library of Japanese books included by Hayashi Shihei. This book, which was published in Japan in 1785, described the Ezo region and its people. In 1832, the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland supported the posthumous abridged publication of Titsingh's French translation of . Julius Klaproth was the editor, completing the task which was  left incomplete by the death of the book's initial editor, Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat. Subdivisions. or (lit., "Island of the Ezo") was divided into several districts. The first was the "Wajinchi", or Japanese Lands, which covered the Japanese settlements on and around the Oshima Peninsula. The rest of Ezo was known as the (lit., "Ezo-land"), or Ainu Lands. Ezochi was in turn divided into three sections: North Ezochi, which covered southern Sakhalin; West Ezochi, which included the northern half of Hokkaidō; and East Ezochi, which included the populous southern Hokkaidō and the Kuril Islands. Ezo The same two