Everything about Hokkaid totally explained
, formerly known as
Ezo,
Yezo,
Yeso, or
Yesso, is
Japan's second largest island and the largest, northernmost of its 47
prefectural-level subdivisions. The
Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from
Honshū, although the two islands are connected by the underwater
Seikan Tunnel. The largest city on Hokkaidō is its capital,
Sapporo, which is also its only
ordinance-designated city.
History
Archeologists theorize that Hokkaidō was settled by
Ainu,
Gilyak, and
Oroke 20000 years ago. The
Nihonshoki is often said to be the first mention of Hokkaidō in recorded history. According to the text,
Abe no Hirafu led a large navy and army to northern areas from 658 to 660 and came into contact with the
Mishihase and
Emishi. One of the places Hirafu went to was called
Watarishima, which is often believed to be present-day Hokkaidō. However, many theories exist in relation to the details of this event, including the location of Watarishima and the common belief that the Emishi in Watarishima were the ancestors of the present-day
Ainu people.
During the
Nara and
Heian periods, people in Hokkaidō conducted trade with
Dewa Province, an outpost of the Japanese central government. From the medieval ages, the people in Hokkaidō began to be called
Ezo. Around the same time Hokkaidō came to be called Ezochi or Ezogashima. The Ezo mainly relied upon hunting and fishing and obtained rice and iron through trade with the Japanese.
During the
Muromachi period, the Japanese created a settlement at the south of the
Oshima peninsula. As more people moved to the settlement to avoid battles, disputes arose between the Japanese and the Ainu. The disputes eventually developed into a rebellion.
Takeda Nobuhiro killed the Ainu leader,
Koshamain, and defeated the rebellion. Nobuhiro's descendants became the rulers of the
Matsumae-han, which ruled the south of Ezochi until the end of the
Edo period.
Matsumae-han's economy relied upon trade with the Ainu. The
Matsumae family was granted exclusive trading rights with the Ainu in the
Azuchi-Momoyama and Edo periods. During the
Meiji Restoration, the
Tokugawa Shogunate realized there was a need to prepare northern defenses against possible
Russian invasion and took over most control of Ezochi. The Shogunate made the Ainu burden slightly easier, but didn't change the overall form of rule.
Hokkaidō was known as Ezochi until the Meiji Restoration. Shortly after the
Boshin War in 1868, a group of Tokugawa loyalists led by
Enomoto Takeaki proclaimed the island's independence as the
Republic of Ezo, but the rebellion was crushed in May 1869. Ezochi was subsequently put under control of Hakodate-fu (Hakodate Prefectural Government). When establishing the Development Commission, the Meiji Government changed the name of Ezochi to Hokkaidō .
The primary purpose of the development commission was to secure Hokkaidō before the Russians extended their control of the Far East beyond
Vladivostok.
Kuroda Kiyotaka was put in charge of the venture. His first step was to journey to the United States and recruit
Horace Capron, President
Grant's Commissioner of Agriculture. From 1871 to 1873 Capron bent his efforts to expounding Western agriculture and mining with mixed results. Capron, frustrated with obstacles to his efforts returned home in 1875. In 1876
William S. Clark arrived to found an agricultural college in Sapporo. Although he only remained a year, Clark left lasting impression on Hokkaidō, inspiring the Japanese with his teachings on agriculture as well as Christianity. His parting words,
"Boys, be ambitious!" can be found on public buildings in Hokkaidō to this day. Whatever the impact these Americans had, the population of Hokkaidō boomed from 58,000 to 240,000 during that decade.
In 1882, the Development Commission was abolished, and Hokkaidō was separated into three prefectures, Hakodate, Sapporo, and Nemuro . In 1886, the three prefectures were abolished, and Hokkaidō was put under the Hokkaidō Agency . Hokkaidō became equal with other prefectures in 1947, when the revised Local Autonomy Law became effective. The Japanese central government established the Hokkaidō Development Agency as an agency of the Prime Minister's Office in 1949 to maintain its executive power in Hokkaidō. The Agency was absorbed by the
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in 2001. The Hokkaidō Bureau and the Hokkaidō Regional Development Bureau of the Ministry still have a strong influence on public construction projects in Hokkaidō.
Naming of Hokkaidō
When establishing the Development Commission, the Meiji Government decided to change the name of Ezochi.
Matsuura Takeshirō submitted six ideas, including names such as
Kaihokudo and
Hokkaidō to the government. The government eventually decided to use the name Hokkaidō, but decided to write it as, as a compromise between and because of the similarity with names such as
Tōkaidō . According to Matsuura, the name was thought up because the Ainu called the region
Kai. Historically, many peoples who had interactions with the ancestors of the Ainu called them and their islands
Kuyi,
Kuye,
Qoy, or some similar name, which may have some connection to the early modern form
Kai. The
Kai element also strongly resembles the Sino-Japanese reading of the characters (Sino-Japanese /ka.i/, Japanese
kun /emisi/), which have been used for over a thousand years in China and Japan as the standard orthographic form to be used when referring to Ainu and related peoples; it's possible that Matsuura's
Kai was actually an alteration, influenced by the Sino-Japanese reading of
Ka-i, of the
Nivkh exonym for the Ainu, namely
Qoy.
Geography
The island of Hokkaidō is located at the north end of Japan, near
Russia, and has coastlines on the
Sea of Japan, the
Sea of Okhotsk, and the
Pacific Ocean. The center of the island has a number of mountains and
volcanic plateaus, and there are coastal plains in all directions. Major cities include
Sapporo and
Asahikawa in the central region and the port of
Hakodate facing
Honshū.
The
governmental jurisdiction of Hokkaidō incorporates several smaller islands, including
Rishiri,
Okushiri Island, and
Rebun. (By Japanese reckoning, Hokkaidō also incorporates several of the
Kuril Islands.) Because the prefectural status of Hokkaidō is denoted by the
dō in its name, it's rarely referred to as "Hokkaidō Prefecture", except when necessary to distinguish the governmental entity from the island.
The island ranks 21st in the world
by area. It is 3.6% smaller than the island of
Ireland while
Hispaniola is 6.1% smaller than Hokkaidō.
By population it ranks 20th, between Ireland and
Sicily. Hokkaidō's population is 4.7% less than that of the island of Ireland, and Sicily's is 12% lower than Hokkaidō's.
Seismic activity
Like the rest of Japan, Hokkaidō is
seismically active. Aside from numerous
earthquakes, the following volcanoes are still considered active (at least one eruption since 1850):
An
earthquake of
magnitude 8.0 struck near the island on
2003-09-25 at 19:50:07 (UTC). In 1993, an earthquake of
magnitude 7.8 generated a
tsunami which devastated
Okushiri, killing 202.
National Parks and quasi-national parks
There are still many undisturbed forests in Hokkaidō, including:
Twelve prefectural natural parks (道立自然公園).
Subprefectures
Hokkaidō is one of 8 prefectures in Japan that are divided into subprefectures (the others being Tokyo, Yamagata Prefecture, Nagasaki Prefecture, Okinawa Prefecture, Kagoshima Prefecture, Miyazaki Prefecture and Shimane Prefecture). This is mostly due to its great size: many parts of the prefecture are simply too far away to be effectively administered by Sapporo. Subprefectural offices in Hokkaidō carry out many of the duties that prefectural offices would fulfill elsewhere in Japan.
Before the current political divisions and after 1869, Hokkaidō was divided into provinces. See Former Provinces of Hokkaidō.
Climate
Hokkaidō is known for its cooler summers and icy winters. Most of the island falls in the humid continental climate zone (Köppen Dfa (humid continental) in some inland lowlands, Dfb (hemiboreal) in most other areas). The average August temperature is around 22 °C (72 °F), while the average January temperature ranges from −12 °C to −4 °C (10 °F to 25 °F) depending on elevation and latitude. The island tends to see isolated snowstorms that develop long-lasting snowbanks, in contrast to the constant flurries seen in the Hokuriku region.
Unlike the other major islands of Japan, Hokkaidō is normally not affected by the June-July rainy season and the relative lack of humidity and typically warm, rather than hot, summer weather makes its climate an attraction for tourists from other parts of Japan.
In winter, the generally high quality of powder snow and numerous mountains in Hokkaidō make it one of Japan's most popular regions for snow sports. The snowfall usually commences in earnest in November and ski resorts (such as those at Niseko, Furano and Rusutsu) usually operate between December and April.
During the winter, passage through the Sea of Okhotsk is often complicated by large ice floes broken loose from the Kamchatka Peninsula. Combined with high winds that occur during winter, this brings air travel and maritime activity almost to a halt on the northern coast of Hokkaidō.
Major cities and towns
Hokkaidō's largest city is the capital, Sapporo. Other major cities include Hakodate in the south and Asahikawa in the central region. Other important population centers include Kushiro, Obihiro, Abashiri, Nemuro.
Hokkaidō has the highest rate of depopulation in Japan. In 2000, 152 (71.7%) of Hokkaidō's 212 municipalities were shrinking. Total shrinking municipalities in Japan in the same year number 1,171.
Economy
Hokkaidō is Japan's predominant agricultural area. It leads the country in the production of rice and fish, and shares the lead in vegetable farming.
Although there's some light industry (most notably paper milling, brewing (Sapporo beer), and food production), most of the population is employed by the service sector. Tourism is an important industry, especially during the cool summertime that attracts campers and hot spring-goers from across Japan. During the winter, skiing and other winter sports continue to bring tourists to Hokkaidō (the Winter Olympics were held in Sapporo in 1972).
Transportation
Hokkaidō's only land link to the rest of Japan is the Seikan Tunnel. Most travelers to the island arrive by air: the main airport is New Chitose Airport in Chitose, just south of Sapporo. Tokyo-Chitose is the world's busiest air route, handling 45 widebody round trips on four airlines each day. One of the airlines, Air Do was named after Hokkaidō. Hokkaidō can also be reached by ferry from Sendai, Niigata and some other cities.
Within Hokkaidō, there's a fairly well-developed railway network (see Hokkaidō Railway Company), but many cities can only be accessed by road.
Education
The Hokkaidō Prefectural Board of Education oversees public schools in Hokkaidō. The board directly operates public high schools. (External Link
) has a list of public high schools in Japanese.
Sports
The sports teams listed below are based in Hokkaidō.
Football
Consadole Sapporo (Sapporo)
Baseball
Hokkaidō Nippon Ham Fighters (Sapporo)
Ice Hockey
Nippon Paper Cranes (Kushiro)
Oji Ice Hockey Team (Tomakomai)
Friendship partners
Hokkaidō has relationships with several provinces, states, and other entities worldwide.(External Link)
Alberta, Canada, since 1980
Heilongjiang, China, since 1980
Massachusetts, United States of America, since 1988
Sakhalin Oblast, Russia, since 1998
Busan, South Korea, since 2005
Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea, since 2006Further Information
Get more info on 'Hokkaid'.
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