Bustling Activity All Shikoku a Market Visitors from All Over

A Legacy of Cultural Imports

Most visitors to Hakodate now arrive by air or rail. Only a half century ago, however, the only public transport to the city was by ship. The rapid development of the city over the past decades has greatly improved access. Ocean transportation brought not only goods, but also all forms and manner of Western culture, from industrial technologies to lifestyles and thought. The city is awash in legacies from the period when Japan was a newly modernized country with a voracious appetite for all things Western. These include Japan’s first Greek Orthodox Church in the Russian tradition, the oldest Western-style museum in Japan, and brick warehouses once used to store imported goods. Many of these venerated buildings have been transformed into restaurants and souvenir shops. But they are still important components of a spectacularly attractive cityscape. Hakodate remains a thriving and dynamic tribute to modern Japanese history.

The staff at Sumitomo Life Insurance Company’s Hakodate customer service center.

Hakodate was the last battlefield of a civil war that ushered in modern Japan. The highlight of the annual “Goryokaku-sai” festival to commemorate the historical event is a procession of some 1,000 citizens dressed as either shogunate troops or imperial soldiers of the new Meiji government.

As Hakodate’s exposure to foreign countries grew with the opening of its port, Japan’s first Western-style fort, Goryokaku, was built to enhance the city’s defenses. The fort has been transformed into a leafy park, while in its vicinity flourishing commercial and business districts have developed.

(Data collected July 2004)