 Raikoke was visited by hunting and fishing parties of the Ainu, but there was no permanent habitation at the time of European contact.The island appears on an official map showing the territories of Matsumae Domain, a feudal domain of Edo Japan dated 1644, and these holdings were officially confirmed by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1715.It was subsequently claimed by the Russian Empire; sovereignty initially passed to Russia under the terms of the Treaty of Shimoda, but was returned to the Empire of Japan per the Treaty of Saint Petersburg along with the rest of the Kuril islands.