Matua

Matua is an uninhabited volcanic island near the center of the Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Ocean, 16km across Golovnin Strait from Raikoke. Its name is derived from the Ainu language, from “hellmouth”.HistoryHunting and fishing parties of the Ainu have long visited Matua, but the island had no permanent habitation at the time of European contact. It appears on an official map showing the territories of the Matsumae Domain, a feudal domain of Edo period Japan dated 1644, and the Tokugawa shogunate officially confirmed these holdings in 1715. Some early European documents refer to the island as Raukoke.The Empire of Russia claimed sovereignty over the island, which initially passed to Russia under the terms of the Treaty of Shimoda (1855), but reverted to the Empire of Japan per the Treaty of Saint Petersburg along with the rest of the Kuril islands. Japan formerly administered Matua as part of Shimushiru District of Nemuro Subprefecture of Hokkaidō.