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Ezo, or Yezo, is old name of the Ainu, native people of Hokkaido and the
northern part of Honshu in Northern Japan in Japanese. Japanese people also
called Ainu's homeland Ezo, and renamed Ezo to Hokkaido prefecture in Meiji
Restoration.
Yezo is the most northerly of the five principal islands forming Japan,
the five being Yezo, Nippon, Shi-koku, Kiushiu and Formosa. It is situated
between 45 50' and 41 21' N. and between 146 7' and 130 n' E.; its
coast-line measures 1423-32 m., and it has an area of 30,148-41 sq. m. On
the N. it is separated from Sakhalin by Soya Strait (La Perouse) and on the
S. from Nippon by Tsugaru Strait. Its northern shores are washed by the Sea
of Okhotsk, its southern and eastern by the Pacific Ocean, and its western
by the Sea of Japan.
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