Hakodate Park Audio Guide

Hakodate Park: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Hakodate Park

   Welcome to Hakodate Park, known in Japanese as Hakodate Kōen and written 函館公園. You are standing on the lower southeastern slope of Mount Hakodate, in a green pocket of the city that looks out over the Tsugaru Strait. This is a large Western-style park, and it is registered under Japan's Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties as a place of scenic beauty. This guide concentrates on the story of how the park came to be, because that story is unusually rich. It involves a British consul, a wealthy local merchant, ordinary townspeople carrying soil in their own hands, and a government that had to be persuaded. The park opened in 1879, and it is often described as one of the most representative city parks in modern Japan. So as you walk, think of this place less as a garden handed down from above and more as a project that a port town built for itself. Let's begin with the idea that started it all.

2. 02

   Hakodate Park and the Consul's Big Idea

   Hakodate had been one of Japan's first international trading ports since 1859, opening alongside Yokohama and Nagasaki. Foreign residents lived here, and one of them changed the shape of this hillside: Richard Eusden, the British consul stationed in Hakodate. In the early 1870s, the Japanese government had issued a proclamation, dated January 15, 1873, encouraging scenic spots and historic sites to become public parks. The following year, crowded places such as ports were urged to set up parks with the agreement of their residents. But the very idea of a park was still unfamiliar to many people. Eusden argued for it with a memorable line: just as sick people need a hospital, healthy people need a place to rest. That sentence carries early European ideas of city planning and public health. Eusden's proposal, backed by the people of Hakodate, gave the park the form it took in 1879. When you feel the calm of this place, you are enjoying a notion that once needed an advocate.

3. 03

   A Park Built by the Townspeople of Hakodate Park

   What makes Hakodate Park remarkable is who built it. A wealthy local merchant named Watanabe Kumashiro became the great champion of the project. He donated money toward the founding costs and gathered contributions from many other people, even putting in his own resources. But money was only part of the story. A man named Asada Seijiro supervised the construction work, and many citizens joined in with voluntary labor. They raised donations, grew and tended flowers and plants, and carried soil to shape the grounds. Researchers who study the park point to this resident participation as one of its defining characteristics. So picture the slope not as a finished landscape but as a shared work site, with merchants and neighbors working side by side. A park that people have physically helped to make tends to be one they feel belongs to them, and that spirit is part of Hakodate Park's identity to this day.

4. 04

   Land, a Museum Plan and Honors at Hakodate Park

   Why did the park rise here? Hakodate lacked the famous sights and sprawling temple or shrine grounds that served as public gathering places in many other Japanese cities. So the planners looked to government-owned land in the Yachigashira area, an official farm called Goyobatake, and its surroundings. The park was created through cooperation between officials and citizens. The early story had a twist. When the Hakodate local government applied to open a park in 1874, the Tokyo authorities raised concerns. In response, Hakodate came up with a fresh proposal: a museum on the park grounds. Historians read that idea as the spark that moved prominent townspeople to donate. Between the opening in 1874 and the renovation of 1878, the park's three hallmarks took shape: its location, the participation of residents, and the museum. Today the recognition is wide. Besides its registration as a place of scenic beauty, the park has been selected among Japan's 100 historical parks and was certified on May 1, 2010 as the first Hokkaido landscape heritage site. The land itself is national property, lent to the city of Hakodate free of charge.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off from Hakodate Park

   As you wander on, keep the slope of Mount Hakodate beneath your feet in mind, along with the strait glimmering beyond. This was once farmland, then an experiment in Western-style public space, and then a shared project of a whole port town. You may also come across more recent chapters. Local reports have described the park's Ferris wheel as the oldest one still in operation in Japan, and the park's animal facilities were renewed and reopened in April 2010. They are small reminders that this park has kept evolving for well over a century. As you stroll, try to spot where a local donor, a volunteer gardener or a soil carrier might once have worked, and ask yourself what a place looks like when its neighbors help create it. There is always more to notice here, so let your curiosity pick the next path.