Susan's Shanghai Blog - Week 83

This is the rest of the Historical Village of Hokkaido.

Watanabe's grocery store was built in Nakatombetsu around 1918.

Next door to the grocery store is Yamamoto's Barber Shop, which was moved here from Sapporo near Maruyama Park. The amazing part of this was that it was a WORKING barber shop until 1986!

This post office opened in 1886 in Setana, when herring fishing was flourishing. It was used by fishermen who came from Honshu to Hokkaido looking for work, to send money back home.

This little red brick police box kept watch over Sapporo at Minami 1-Jo until 1971 and has a really nice Japanese-style roof. There was a gentleman there where you could wear a policeman's hat (as I did here).

The Kaitakushi Industrial Office is the oldest structure in the historical village (dating from 1877) and it has an early-American design. It was here that the Japanese would learn new technologies and work under American guidance for construction and manufacturing.

This impressive 3-story stone building is the Otaru Shimbun (newspaper) building.

Inside was displays that showed things like printing. Here you can see the different Japanese characters that were used for printing. Susan got the chance to try out an old printing press.

Just a view of the tree-lined main street with the trolley tracks through the middle.

This is the Sanmasu Buckwheat Noodle Shop building, which dates back to 1909 in Otaru. It was owned by Tokumatsu Kawmoto, who came from the Ishikawa Prefecture.

This interesting-shaped structure is the Takei Sake Brewery. It brewed and sold sake in addition to general merchandise. There were two main types of sake brewed here: Matsu no Tsuyu and Tama no Kawa.

Located in the fishing village of Furubira, this 1919 structure was owned by Dr. Sekichi Kondo. It has an early American design and had a large book collection stored behind it.

This is another grocery store where rice, general goods, and kitchenware were sold. The semi-circular eaves at the entrance on the right shows a Western influence.

The Oishi Sweet Shop was moved from Obihiro to the historical village. The owner, Mr. Taizo Oishi, was skilled in the art of making sweets and the building includes the shop, the factory, and his house.

The Ota farriery operated up until 1945. Since horses were the main form of transportation and also used in farming, the farriery (where horseshoes were made and fitted to the horses) was a key part of any town.

Next door is the Fujiwara Cart and Sleigh factory, which operated from 1903 to 1963 in Moseushi. It consists of a residence, shop, and workshop, and was owned by Mr. Nobukichi Fujiwara. The cart and horse sleigh were the main means of transportation until cars arrived, and this factory was run by three generations.

This 1897 blacksmith shop came from the fishing fillage of Ishikari and produced farming tools in addition to fishing gear and boat fittings.

Originally located behind the Sapporo Station, this stone warehouse was very influencial in collecting and distributing agricultural produce during the colonial period.

The big windows on the roof of this two-story building gives away its' purpose. The Hirose Photo Studio was open until 1958 in Iwamizawa.

This huge structure is the Sapporo Agricultural College's hostel, which housed more than 10,000 students until it closed.

Now, over into the Farm Village section. Before railroads were built, roads had relay stations at various points, including the Sokeshuomabetsu Relay Station. These were used by those traveling by horse and carriage, as well as freight-haulers.

This is the Hokuseikan Silkworm House, dating back to 1905 in the Urasusu area. Silk was Japan's key export during the Meiji era and in this special farmhouse, silkworm seeds were produced and shipped to sericulture farms. This specific house also had a sericulture room and a mulberry leaf storage area.

This large structure was a machinery shed for the Takikawa Livestock Experiment Station, dating back just to 1921. Hokkaido was the first region in Japan to use large agricultural machinery.

This is an interesting building with the squares on one side. It was the Iwama family farm. The family came from Miyagi Prefecture and built this farmhouse in the style of their homeland.

A farmer-soldier's home from Osamunai, this 1895 one-story wooden structure was really not built for the cold climate of Hokkaido and the residents endured a difficult life in the winter.

This tiny building is a rare existing structure from the pioneer days of the sericulture industry, dating back to 1881. It was built as a sericulture storehouse by the Yamada family.

Another storehouse, this one for rice. The Kawanishi family were rice farmers that settled in Hokkaido from the Nagano Prefecture. Initially, it was thought that Hokkaido's cold climate was not suitable for rice farming. A new kind of rice was developed that thrived in this climate and by 1887, rice farming became a major industry.

Another rice-farming family, the Higuchi family settled here from Toyama Prefecture and built a Toyama-style farmhouse in Sapporo in 1897. Here you can see the central room with the fire pit in the middle, which was used to heat water in the kettle hanging from the ceiling.

The last two buildings in the Farm Village are thatch-roofed buildings. This first one is the Kikuta Family farmhouse. It has a traditional Niigata architectural style, where the family moved from.

In contrast to the previous house, this tiny thatched hut would have been the first house that settlers built immediately after moving to Hokkaido. They would live in this house for 4-5 years before building a more permanent house. I can't imagine living in something like this ... a single room with literally NO insulation in the thatched walls. I can imagine winters in Hokkaido were REALLY cold in this type of a building.

Now, the Mountain Village. This is a charcoal-making shed which would have been used by settlers to supplement their income before they could harvest crops. Hokkaido was once Japan's leading producer of charcoal.

This shanty was used as temporary living quarters for wood cutters, who were involved in logging on the mountain. Logging season is in the winter in Hokkaido, so they would be living in here during the coldest time of the year. You can see how the loggers would have lived. Again, a big open building with living structures around the outside. You can see house they would sleep side-by-side around the ouside on mats with a pillow and blanket. The length of the bed was basically my arm-length, so it was either uncomfortable, or they were pretty short!

Martial arts was emphasized in the early days of education in schools, and all students took courses in either judo or Kendo. This martial arts gymnasium is from Sapporo and dates back to 1929. Inside the gym was separated into two sections: one with mats on the floor for judo and the other just wooden floors for Kendo. Kendo is a type of Japanese sword-fighting, and you can see a picture with the gear that they wore.

The locomotive shed of the logging railway, complete with one of the transport engines.

And lastly, a wooden suspension bridge through the woods.