Hakodate

Hakodate (like much of other parts of Hokkaido), was originally populated by the Ainu. They lived in the Oshima Peninsula. The name "Hakodate" may have originated from an Ainu word, "hak-casi" ("shallow fort"). Another possibility is that it means "box" or "building" in Japanese which refers to the castle built by the Kono (Kano) clan in the fifteenth century.[2]

Hakodate was founded in 1454, when Kono Kaganokami Masamichi constructed a large manor house in the Ainu fishing village of Usukeshi (the word for bay in Ainu).

After his death, Masamichi's son, Kono Suemichi, and family were driven out of Hakodate into nearby Kameda during the Ainu rebellion in 1512 and little history was recorded for the area during the next 100 years. There was constant low-level conflict in the Oshima peninsula at the time with the Ainu, as armed merchants like the Kono family, established bases to control trade in the region. This conflict culminated in an uprising from 1669 to 1672, led by Ainu warrior Shakushain after which the Ainu in the region were suppressed.[3]

Hakodate flourished during the Hoei period (1704–11), and many new temples were founded in the area. The town's fortunes received a further boost in 1741 when the Matsumae clan, which had been granted nearby areas on the Oshima Peninsula as a march fief, moved its Kameda magistracy to Masamichi's house in Hakodate.

In 1779, the Tokugawa shogunate took direct control over Hakodate, which triggered rapid development in the area. Merchant Takadaya Kahei, who is honoured as the founder of Hakodate port, set up trading operations, which included opening the northern Etorofu sea route to the Kuril island fisheries. He is credited with turning Hakodate from a trading outpost into a thriving city. A Hakodate magistracy was established in 1802.[4] By 1807, the power of the Tokugawa government extended to the entire region. However, in 1821, the central government relaxed their control of the area and restored the Matsumae clan to the full powers they had before.[2]

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  Lithograph entitled "View of Hakodate from Snow Peak" looking towards the sea—artist, Wilhelm Heine (1856)
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  Port of Hakodate map circa 1863

The port of Hakodate was surveyed by a fleet of five U.S. ships in 1854 under the conditions of the Convention of Kanagawa, as negotiated by Commodore Matthew Perry.

Hakodate port partially opened to foreign ships for provisioning in the following year and then completely to foreign trade on 2 June 1859 as one of five Japanese open ports designated in the 1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce signed with the U.S. The Hakodate foreign settlement is one of the legacies of foreign influence in Hakodate.

A mariner in Perry's fleet died during a visit to the area and became the first U.S. citizen to be buried in Japan when he was interred in Hakodate's cemetery for foreigners.

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  Naval Battle of Hakodate (1869)
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  Omachi, one of the neighborhoods in the Hakodate foreign settlement (1880)
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  Port of Hakodate in 1897, by Ogawa Kazumasa
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  Goryōkaku fortress (1866)
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  Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse (1869)

British merchant, naturalist and spy, Thomas Blakiston, took up residence in Hakodate in the summer of 1861 to establish a saw milling business. He stayed in Hakodate until 1884, during which time he documented the local natural environment, equipped the local meteorological station and ran guns to the Boshin War rebels.[5]

As one of few points of Japanese contact with the outside world, Hakodate was soon host to several overseas consulates. The Russian consulate included a chapel from where Nicholas of Japan is credited with introducing Eastern Orthodox Christianity to Japan in 1861 (now the Japanese Orthodox Church). The Orthodox church is neighbored by several other historical missionary churches, including Anglican and Catholic.

Hakodate also played a central role in the Boshin War between the Tokugawa shogunate and the Meiji Emperor which followed Perry's opening of Japan. Shogunate rebel Enomoto Takeaki fled to Hakodate with the remnants of his navy and his handful of French advisers in winter 1868, including Jules Brunet. They formally established the Republic of Ezo on December 25. The republic tried unsuccessfully to gather international recognition to foreign legations in Hakodate, including the Americans, French, and Russians. The Naval Battle of Hakodate was fought from 4 to 10 May 1869, between the remnants of the Tokugawa shogunate navy and the newly formed Imperial Japanese Navy. It was a decisive victory for the Imperial Japanese Navy.

On 14 June 1868, Hakodate was designated as an urban prefecture (府 fu), one of the first two, the other being Kyoto. On February 8, 1882, it was enlarged into Hakodate-ken, and then became part of Hokkaido on January 26, 1886.

The rebels occupied Hakodate's famous European-style Goryōkaku fort and used it as the centre of their defences in southern Hokkaido. Government forces defeated the secessionists in the Battle of Hakodate in 1869 and the city and fort were surrendered to emperor. Military leader, Hijikata Toshizō, was one of those slain in the fighting.

In 1878, Isabella Bird reported of the city in her travelogue:

The streets are very wide and clean, but the houses are mean and low. The city looks as if it had just recovered from a conflagration. The houses are nothing but tinder… Stones, however, are its prominent feature. Looking down upon it from above you see miles of grey boulders, and realise that every roof in the windy capital is "hodden doun" by a weight of paving stones.

Hakodate was awarded city status on August 1, 1922. On March 21, 1934, a serious fire had destroyed around two-thirds of all the buildings in Hakodate. This event also led to many residents leaving and subsequently depopulating the city.[2] The city escaped most of the ravages of World War II. Areas around Hakodate-yama were fortified and access restricted to the public. Many prisoners of war were interned in Hakodate and historians record a total of 10 camps.[6] The city was subjected to two Allied bombing raids on 14 and 15 July 1945. Around 400 homes were destroyed on the western side of Hakodate-yama and an Aomori-Hakodate ferry was attacked with 400 passengers killed.

In 1976, a defecting Soviet pilot named Viktor Belenko flew his plane into the civilian airport in Hakodate.

Hakodate's size nearly doubled on December 1, 2004, when the town of Minamikayabe (from Kayabe District), and the towns of Esan and Toi, and the village of Todohokke (all from Kameda District), were merged into it.

The Hokkaido Shinkansen line opened on 26 March 2016.[7] The undersea Seikan Tunnel with the Shinkansen rail line greatly reduced the travel time from Honshu to Hakodate.

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  Hakodate Port circa 1930
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  US Navy Grumman TBF Avenger aircraft dropping bombs on Hakodate during July 1945

• Hokuto to the west
• Nanae to the north
• Shikabe to the north east

Aerial view of Hakodate with Mount Hakodate on the left side (2012)

• Mount E (618 m (2,028 ft)): Hokkaido's southernmost volcano
• Mount Hakodate (334 m (1,096 ft))

• Kameda River (亀田川, Kameda-gawa)
• Matsukura River (松倉川, Matsukura-gawa)
• Shiodomari River (汐泊川, Shiodomari-gawa)

Hakodate has a cityscape that covers the center of the Kameda peninsula. A narrow land area separates Hakodate Bay to the west from Tsugaru Strait in the south-east side. It is best viewed from the top of Mount Hakodate.

Panoramic view of Hakodate (10 July 2015)

The population of Hakodate increased by 402% from 28,825 to 144,749 between 1873 till 1920. Hakodate's population peaked in 1980 at 320,154, but has been gradually in decline due to aging since then.[10]

According to the Köppen climate classification, Hakodate's climate is humid continental (Dfb) of warm summer and winters with regular intense blizzards. With an alternate definition, using the −3 °C (27 °F) isotherm, Hakodate falls in the rare oceanic climate (Cfb) of the east coast of the continents due to the warm current of Tsushima. The warmest month has an average temperature of 22 °C (72 °F). And so the city is the limit of hot summer climates for a city on the immediate coast in Japan (Cfa/Dfa), although appearing in other interior regions of the province.[11] Hakodate has snowy winters and warm, humid summers. Winters are cold for the latitude but milder than much of Hokkaido.

Hakodate features four distinct seasons. The city sees a substantial amount of snowfall during the course of the year, averaging roughly 380 cm (150 in) of snow annually. Spring typically begins with some snowfall, but sees a gradual warming trend as the season progress. Summers are generally warm but not hot, with average high temperatures in the warmest month (August) hovering around 26 °C (79 °F). Fall initially is warm but becomes increasingly colder as the season progress. It is not uncommon to see snowfall in the latter parts of the fall season.

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National

• Hokkaido University, Hakodate Campus
• Hokkaido University of Education, Hakodate Campus

Public

• Future University Hakodate

Private

• Hakodate University
• Hakodate Junior College
• Hakodate Otani College
• Russia Kyokutou University Hakodate school

National

• Hakodate National College of Technology

• Hokkaido Hakodate Chubu High School
• Hokkaido Hakodate Nishi High School
• Hokkaido Hakodate Ryohoku High School
• Hokkaido Hakodate Technical High School
• Hokkaido Hakodate Commercial High School
• Hokkaido Minamikayabe High School
• Hokkaido Toi High School
• Hakodate City High School

• Hakodate La Salle Junior High School & Senior High School
• Hakodate Shirayuri Gakuen Junior High School & Senior High School
• Hakodate Otani High School
• Iai Joshi Women's Academy
• Otsuma High School
• Seisho Gakuin High School
• Hakuryo High School affiliated with Hakodate University
• Yuto High School affiliated with Hakodate University