Kushun kotan

• Japanese: 久春古丹 (Kushun kotan)

Kushun kotan was an encampment on Sakhalin Island established by Russia in 1853, dismantled the following year, and further destroyed by Matsumae han in 1855.

The encampment was first built around 1853/6/30 (on the Japanese calendar), when men from a Russian ship came ashore there and established the camp. Upon hearing about this, Matsumae Takahiro, lord of Matsumae han, dispatched a number of warriors to check out the situation. They reported to the shogunate in 1854/4 that about 60 Russians were encamped there at that time.

Four or so Russian ships visited the site in the 4th and 5th months of that year, but by the end of the 5th month, the Russians dismantled the camp. Hori Toshihiro and Muragaki Norimasa, shogunate officials assigned to oversee matters in Ezo, visited the site the following month, on 6/12, as they surveyed the area in preparation for negotiations with the Russians as to a formal Japan-Russia border on Sakhalin. Russian individuals came ashore there at least one more time before the end of that year, on 7/10, leaving the following day.

The following year, in 1855/2, the shogunate ordered Matsumae Takahiro to have what remained of the encampment destroyed.

References

• Ishin Shiryô Kôyô 維新史料綱要, vol 1 (1937), 469, 580, 595, 604, 613, 622.
• Ishin Shiryô Kôyô 維新史料綱要, vol 2 (1937), 12.