Sapporo & Hokkaido — Pioneer History & Historic Sites

The name "Sapporo"

The most widely accepted origin of "Sapporo" is the Ainu "sat poro pet" (dry, great river), thought to describe the Toyohira River and the terrain around it. Another reading is "sari poro pet" (a river of spreading reed-marsh / a great wetland river) — the etymology remains a matter of several theories. Many place names across the city come from the indigenous language, among them Toyohira (from toy-pira, "the crumbled cliff"), Hassamu and Kotoni.

Rivers, Roads, and the Names of People

Ōtomo Kametarō and the Sōsei River — Ōtomo Kametarō (1834–1897) was a shogunal retainer who studied the Hōtoku methods under Ninomiya Sontoku. He crossed to Hokkaido in 1858 and, after success clearing land at Kikonai and Ōno, opened Motomura — the later Sapporo village — in 1866. The roughly 4 km irrigation channel he dug then, the "Ōtomo Canal" — a work others called "a million-ryō undertaking" — was later extended and, in 1874, named the "Sōsei River." The city's north–south, east–west origin point is set by this river.

The Toyohira and Shōjin Rivers — it was the power of rivers that built the city. The Toyohira River, one of Japan's swiftest, is a "raging river" that changed shape with every heavy rain. It is said that it once bent north near the center of Sapporo, followed the Fushiko River, and joined the Ishikari River at Shinoro; one of its distributaries is the Kamokamo River at the head of the Sōsei (the present course dates from a 1941 improvement). A tributary, the Shōjin River, is o-so-ushi in Ainu — "a river with a waterfall at its mouth." Because fish could not climb past the falls, some say it was called the river beyond which there were no fish — a "fasting" (shōjin) river.

Mount Moiwa and a Muddled Name — Mount Moiwa was a sacred mountain to the Ainu. Its name comes from the Ainu inkar-us-pe (the place one always climbs to keep watch). The word "moiwa (small mountain)," meanwhile, originally referred to neighbouring Mount Maruyama. Meiji-era settlers are said to have swapped the two, and the names simply stuck. The primeval forest on its slopes, a natural monument, still shows the face of a northern woodland the pioneers never touched.

The Two Founders of Sapporo — Shimura Tetsuichi and Yoshida Mohachi, who served as ferrymen on the banks of the Toyohira River from around 1857, before the Kaitakushi arrived, are called the "founders of Sapporo" (a monument to Yoshida Mohachi stands by the Sōsei Bridge). A note: not the "Kameda brothers" — but rather these two founders plus the father of the Sōsei River, Ōtomo Kametarō. Three names all too easily muddled.

About Shinoro — opened earlier than the city center, in the late Edo period, by Arai Kinsuke and Hayama Seitarō, Shinoro (Kita-ku) is among the oldest settlements in Sapporo. Its story lingers at Shinoro Shrine.

How Gyōkei-dōri Got Its Name — "Gyōkei-dōri" (Minami 14-jō Street), running west from Nakajima Park, is named for the road along which Crown Prince Yoshihito — the future Emperor Taishō — made a royal visit (gyōkei) in 1911. Street names carrying such histories still live on across the city.

Learn More (Records & Archives)

To dig deeper into the record of the pioneering, visit these institutions, where documents, photographs and tools of the age are preserved and displayed.

Photo credits: Red Brick Office, Hōheikan, Seikatei © 663highland (CC BY 2.5) / Clock Tower Balon Greyjoy (CC0) / Historical Village of Hokkaido © t-konno (CC BY-SA 3.0) / Sapporo Beer Museum © MIKI Yoshihito, derivative: MrPanyGoff (CC BY 2.0) / Hokkaido Jingū © Immanuelle (CC BY 4.0) — all via Wikimedia Commons.
This page is a general overview. Dates and origins are subject to differing theories, and the current condition of the sites (renovations, public access) may change. For details, please check the official information from each institution and from the City of Sapporo.