Barely a hundred and fifty years ago, where Sapporo now stands there were forests, rivers full of salmon and Ainu villages. In 1869 Japan renamed the island Hokkaido and colonised it with American advisers, banned tattoos and traditional hunting, and handed the land to settlers. Only in 2019 did a law recognise the Ainu as an indigenous people. Twelve stops between the forest the Ainu knew, the shrine of the gods of colonisation, the city drawn with a ruler, the Americans' clock tower, the brick building that issued the bans, the university that dug up graves, the red-star brewery, the settlers' district, the museum of the island's history, the pioneer village and, beside Lake Poroto, the national Ainu museum and the memorial where returned remains now rest. Approximate audio duration: 23 minutes.
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Sapporo: los ainu, el pueblo que ya estaba en Hokkaido antes de Japón
Hace apenas ciento cincuenta años, donde hoy se levanta Sapporo había bosques, ríos llenos de salmones y aldeas ainu. En 1869 Japón rebautizó la isla como Hokkaido y la colonizó con asesores estadounidenses, prohibió los tatuajes y la caza tradicional, y repartió la tierra entre los colonos. Recién en 2019 una ley reconoció a los ainu como pueblo indígena. Doce paradas entre el bosque que vieron los ainu, el santuario de los dioses de la colonización, la ciudad trazada con regla, la torre del reloj de los americanos, el edificio de ladrillo que dictó las prohibiciones, la universidad que desenterró tumbas, la cervecería de la estrella roja, el barrio de los colonos, el museo de la historia de la isla, la aldea de los pioneros y, junto al lago Poroto, el museo nacional ainu y el memorial donde descansan los restos devueltos. Duración aproximada de audio: 23 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~23 min of audio · 94.02 km on foot (~23 h 30 min walking) · about 24 h in total
You are at the entrance to Maruyama Park, on the west side of Sapporo. Behind the trees rises a rounded hill covered in forest. That forest is older than the city behind you.
Barely a hundred and fifty years ago there were no avenues or buildings here. There were forests of katsura and oak, rivers full of salmon and small villages by the water. This was the land of the Ainu, who called their world Ainu Mosir: the land of humans.
The Ainu lived in Hokkaido, southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands long before Japanese settlers arrived. They hunted deer and bears, fished for salmon and gathered…
2
The Gods of Colonisation
You are standing before Hokkaido Shrine, surrounded by tall trees. It looks like any of Japan's thousands of Shinto shrines. But its origin is tied directly to the colonisation of the island.
In 1869 the new Meiji government renamed the island of Ezo as Hokkaido and created a special office to colonise it, the Kaitakushi. That same year the emperor ordered three gods to be enshrined on the island, known as the three gods of colonisation.
They were Okunitama, the spirit of the land of the country, and Okuninushi and Sukunahikona, two gods who in Japanese myth built and ordered the land. A Kai…
3
A City Drawn with a Ruler
You are in Odori Park, a green strip about a kilometre and a half long that runs through the centre of Sapporo from east to west. Look at the streets: they form an almost perfect grid. Nothing here grew by chance.
Sapporo was planned from scratch from 1869 onwards by the Kaitakushi. Shima Yoshitake, the same official who brought the shrine's gods, chose the site and began to lay out the city. Street addresses are coordinates: North 1, West 3.
This broad avenue was born as a firebreak. It separated the government offices to the north from the houses and shops to the south. Today it hosts the …
4
The Americans' Frontier
You are in front of the Sapporo Clock Tower, a white wooden building with a red roof. If it reminds you of a New England church, you are not entirely wrong. It was designed after American models.
It was built in 1878 as the drill hall of Sapporo Agricultural College. The clock was installed in 1881 and made by a Boston company. Its bell still strikes the hours.
To colonise Hokkaido, the Japanese government hired advisers from the United States. In 1871 Horace Capron arrived, a former US Commissioner of Agriculture. He recommended farms, roads, livestock and crops like those of the American W…
5
The Building of Prohibitions
You are in front of the Former Hokkaido Government Office, a red brick building with an octagonal dome at its centre. Locals call it akarenga, the red brick one. It was completed in 1888.
The island was governed from here. First by the Kaitakushi, until it was dissolved in 1882. Then, from 1886, by the Hokkaido government. From these offices came the laws that changed the lives of the Ainu.
Even the island's name has a story. It was proposed in 1869 by the explorer Matsuura Takeshiro, who had travelled across Ezo and lived among the Ainu. One of his proposals included the syllable kai, which…
6
The University That Opened the Graves
You are at the entrance to Hokkaido University, one of the largest and leafiest campuses in Japan. It is the direct heir of Sapporo Agricultural College, the one William Clark led. In 1918 it became an imperial university.
For decades this was the main centre for the scientific study of the Ainu. And part of that science has a dark side. From the 1930s onwards, university researchers excavated Ainu cemeteries in various parts of Hokkaido.
They took skulls and bones for studies in physical anthropology, which sought to measure and classify races. Often they did so without the communities' per…
7
The Red Star and the Lost Salmon
You are in front of the Sapporo Beer Museum, a large red brick building with a tall chimney. Notice the five-pointed red star. It has nothing to do with communism.
It was the emblem of the Kaitakushi: the North Star, guiding settlers to Hokkaido. The colonisation office founded a brewery in Sapporo in 1876, because the island's cold climate and wild hops were ideal. The brewmaster, Nakagawa Seibei, had learned his trade in Germany.
This building was put up in 1890 as a beet sugar factory, another of the projects to fill the island with industry. It was later used for malting, and since 1987 …
8
The Settlers' District
You are at the Susukino crossing, surrounded by neon signs, bars and ramen restaurants. It is the largest entertainment district north of Tokyo. And it, too, was born as part of the colonisation plan.
In 1871 the Kaitakushi created an officially licensed brothel district here. The aim was practical: to keep the thousands of labourers building the city, who otherwise tended to drift back to their villages in the south.
Those labourers were only the beginning. From 1875 the government sent the tondenhei, farmer-soldiers who received land in return for cultivating it and defending the island. T…
9
Before Meiji: Trade and Rebellion
You are in front of the Hokkaido Museum, in the middle of the Nopporo forest on the eastern edge of Sapporo. It opened in 2015, merging the island's former historical museum with a research centre for Ainu culture.
Inside, it tells something that is often forgotten: the pressure on the Ainu did not begin in 1869. It began centuries earlier, at the southern tip of the island, with the Matsumae clan.
In 1604 the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu granted the Matsumae a monopoly on trade with the Ainu. Rice, sake and iron goods were exchanged for dried salmon, furs and other products. Over the years the te…
10
The Pioneer Village
You are in the Historical Village of Hokkaido, an open-air museum that opened in 1983 in the Nopporo forest. Walk down the main street: shops, a railway station, a school, wooden houses. It looks like a town frozen at the end of the nineteenth century.
More than fifty buildings were brought from different parts of the island and rebuilt here. In Japanese the place is called Kaitaku no Mura: the village of colonisation.
Look for the house of the tondenhei, the farmer-soldiers. It is a simple single-storey dwelling, designed so a family could survive its first winter. Many settlers truly suffe…
11
Singing All Together
You are at Upopoy, beside Lake Poroto in Shiraoi. In front of you is the National Ainu Museum, and beyond it, on the shore, traditional thatched houses called cise. Upopoy is an Ainu word: it means singing all together.
It opened in July 2020. It is the first national museum devoted to the Ainu. Look at the signs: the first language on them is Ainu, before Japanese.
That detail matters. The Ainu language is considered critically endangered. Very few native speakers remain today, although the number of young people studying it is growing.
One reason it survived is Chiri Yukie, a young Ainu w…
12
Those Who Returned to the Land
You are at the Upopoy memorial, on a hill from which Lake Poroto can be seen through the trees. It is a quiet place, with a tall, sober monument. Here rest the remains of hundreds of Ainu that were kept for decades in universities across Japan.
They are the skulls and bones removed from cemeteries for science, like those Hokkaido University held. Those that could not be returned to their home communities were moved here in 2019. Ainu ceremonies are held here in their memory.
That same year, in April 2019, Japan passed a law that for the first time legally recognised the Ainu as an indigenous…
How long does the "Sapporo: the Ainu, the People Who Were in Hokkaido Before Japan" audio tour take?
It has about 23 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 94.02 km walking route (~23 h 30 min on foot). Plan roughly 24 h in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Forest the Ainu Knew" (coordinates 43.0547, 141.312). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Sapporo and pick "Sapporo: the Ainu, the People Who Were in Hokkaido Before Japan". No account required to start.
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No wifi needed · Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean
