We spent our last day and a half in Hokkaido in Sapporo to learn more about the city’s early days. This was the least structured part of our eight-day visit as we came in without hard Sapporo plans but looking at brochures and passing the old akarenga near the train station, we decided on three locations with special places in Hokkaido history.
The best known and least respected of which is the Sapporo Tokeidai or clock tower.
Built in 1878 its one of Sapporo’s oldest building and follows a standard pattern that looks like an American church though it was originally the Sapporo Agricultural College (now Hokkaido University) martial drill hall. Kaitakushi Director Gen. Kuroda Kiyotaka took a look at it on opening day and said, “Let’s put a clock on that.” (I’ve noticed that’s kind of what they do here. Got a prominent building or tower? Let’s put a clock on it!)
The tower has a reputation as one of the most disappointing tourist destinations in Japan along Kochi’s Harimayabashi (Harimaya Bridge). I have no idea what people are expecting if they walk away disappointed.
It may be dwarfed by surrounding skyscrapers and its peaceful atmosphere assaulted by the constant sound of traffic, but the little clock tower hall is an artistic and patriotic structure that still serves the former frontier community that grew up around it. With its lacy trim and colorful red and white late Meiji era (1868-1912) paint it’s a very striking hall amid drab mountains of modern steel and glass.
Like most Kaitakushi government buildings it’s an American design and could be any New England church, chapel or barn, which makes it one-of-a-kind in Japan. The Kaitakushi red Pole Star patriotically adorns every corner and like in the other former government-funded enterprises is a consistent motif.
Inside a small museum shares a brief history of the tower and the school, which is tied to one of Sapporo’s most notable residents Dr. William S. Clark, the college’s first vice principal. Though he stayed for less than a year, Dr. Clark’s legacy is disproportionate to the time he lived here. He left behind a school of liberally-trained independent thinkers, Christian values and famous last words which still echo through Japan today- “Boys be ambitious.”
This tower clock is the oldest operating in Japan and runs with its original machinery and pulley system just as it did when it first arrived from Massachusetts in 1881, nothing has been modernized. A cutaway replica demonstrates how the mechanism functions. Most of the second floor is still set up like a lecture hall with rows of pews; a statue of Dr. Clark sits on a bench beside the podium. (It should be noted the clock tower was built after Clark left.)
Before leaving I checked out the room to the right of the entrance to see the tower’s other resident, Fanny Pio. Fanny is a blue-eyed friendship doll that was among the 12,738 sent to Japan from the U.S. as a goodwill gesture in 1927. These dolls were celebrated on their arrival and were treasured possessions of the schools they were given to.
During World War II they were declared ‘enemy’ dolls and ordered destroyed, resulting in the little girl dolls being smashed, burned, and used in bayonet practice. Not every school complied with the order and instead hid the dolls away.
Fanny is one of roughly 300 surviving dolls from that heartfelt gift given almost a century ago. She’s not too shabby and has been restored over the years; her doll travel bureau passport is mostly legible, the handwriting is fading but it’s still clearly signed by her Uncle Sam giving her to the care of Japan’s boys and girls.
The clock tower is almost entirely bilingual.
The Akarenga (Red Brick) Government Office Building looks like a luxurious mansion set in an evergreen park near Sapporo Station. Despite being built in 1888, well after the Kaitakushi’s American engineers had left, this red brick building has an American-inspired style with its distinctive dome. Red bricks, green dome, white snow and more red stars, it’s at its visual best in winter.
The interior is a bit dim and stuffy, but maintains its original (sort of, it was gutted in a fire around 1912) stately detailing. While visiting the museum rooms I tried to slow down and pay attention to the trim of the rooms themselves, the ceilings and hallways. If you like architecture you’re doing yourself a favor in doing so.
Most of the rooms are mini-museums dedicated to the development of Hokkaido, ongoing disputes with Russia concerning the Kuril Islands and the plight of the Japanese on Sakhalin. The last two are very local yet international issues. The Sakhalin situation was rather sad as the Russia captured the island after Japan agreed to surrender and many Japanese were stuck there under oppressive Communist rule. I know some would say “It’s getting a taste of their own medicine” because of the cruel, heavy-handed way Japan ran its own colonies but I don’t believe civilians ever ‘deserve’ punishment because of their government’s actions, it just sometimes comes as part of conflict and it’s unfortunate. Most of those artifacts are personal items, many from soldiers and children.
The space dedicated to Hokkaido history is a sampler-style annex of the Hokkaido Museum, so if you haven’t time to visit that one, this is a good, brief substitute. The one preserved space is the old governor’s office which is a bit run-down but fully furnished.
The Akarenga is free to visit and about two/thirds of it is translated into English.
After the Akarenga we took the tram, not the Snow Miku tram but the normal one (What is it with this city and Hatsune Miku?), to Nakajima Park and the Hoheikan. I’d seen photos of the white with baby blue trim Victorian hotel but it didn’t do justice to the sight of it covered in snow amid a quite park. (I know I sound like Jon Stewart in Half-Baked: Have you seen this famous building? Have you ever seen it IN SNOW?”)
It may have taken inspiration from other hotels and homes, but Kaitakushi head architect Kiko Adachi built this American-style hotel to his own design. A pale baby blue that almost blends in with snow, while the half-circle columned porch is its most prominent feature if you stop and take in the details you’ll notice it too carries the star motif. Completed in August 1881 this was among the last Kaitakushi building projects.
Built for dignitaries and visiting high-level government employees it was finished none too soon as its first visitor would be Emperor Meiji on his first and only visit to Sapporo. I don’t believe he found it disagreeable. The hotel is elegant as anything found in the more civilized parts of 1880s Japan and like the other Kaitakushi project money was no object in its construction.
We had a personal tour guide who highlighted the hotel’s special features and history. Its grand spaces could have belonged to any mansion in America or Britain but our guide pointed out the little unique touches such as the decorative birds in ceiling molding. Most are original and each room’s is different. The candelabras, which are ornate works of art, were designed to be complimentary. She pointed out little gas valves disguised as decorations in the candelabra that show they were intended to be gas-powered lamps, but fear of fire caused them to only be mounted with candles.
Our guide rather proudly showed us the few remaining pieces of original furniture which included the chair used by Emperor Taisho in 1911 and the imperial washing bowl. It was used by three emperors and I would have loved to have heard the hotel staff bring it to his room to proclaim, “Your father’s father used this wash bowl!” The emperor’s room is kept as it was with reproduction 1880s furniture and dim lighting that was probably accurate to the period.
Imperial bedroom’s antechamber
When we were done Emi and I had coffee in the downstairs dining room. It was nice, but not necessarily high class. We could only imagine what high tea would have been like served in this place, but this was enough and of all the ways to end the journey, this would be a good one.
The next afternoon we were to fly back home so had no plans beside checking on the clock tower, but a bout of sleeplessness gave me one last thing to seek out- the bust of Dr. Clark at Hokkaido University. After seeing his name pop up so much over the past week I wanted to see his memorial. Our hotel was ten minutes by foot from it so I set out in the pre-dawn hoping the cool air would help me relax and maybe rest later. Sapporo before sun up, still covered in snow and ice, was surprisingly quiet and the campus itself, with its bountiful evergreens feels like it’s hidden in a park. The little bust was easy to find but once there I noticed a stately looking dormitory so I checked it out. Then I realized I was surrounded by historic halls and forgetting about my desire to get rest spent another hour walking around. The trip had begun again.
For our last night in Hokkaido we dined at Umizora no Haru to try their Ainu drinking course. It was a two-hour all we could drink that came with Ainu dishes such as chitatap, ohaw and tonoto. I’d seen some of these in Golden Kamuy and was excited to try them for myself. I enjoyed them all, especially the chitatap which is finely chopped salmon served like a ball of ground beef and tonoto, which is very similar to the doburoku sake of Shirakawa-go, Gifu Prefecture. Because of the rice in it, it’s like drinking the mash you make moonshine from, but I swear it tastes really good.
Since we stayed near Sapporo Station our trip structure for the final day and a half was to visit the Akarenga then Hoheikan, which took all day. The following morning we visited the Tokeidai before heading home.
ADDRESSES
Sapporo Tokeidai
2 Chome Kita 1 Jonishi, Chuo Ward, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-0001
http://sapporoshi-tokeidai.jp/english/
Sapporo Old Government Building
6 Chome Kita 3 Jonishi, Chuo Ward, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8588
Hoheikan
1-20 Nakajimakoen, Chuo Ward, Sapporo, Hokkaido 064-0931
http://www.s-hoheikan.jp/
Umizora no Haru
Minami 3 Jo Nishi 4-17-3, Chuo-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 060-0063
011-231-6868 (+81-11-231-6868
REFERENCES
Meiji Revisited: The Sites of Victorian Japan by Dallas Finn
Fanny Pio
https://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/dolls/american/individual/tokeidai/index.htm