Hokkaido Island: the land of the Ainu, named in 1869
Hokkaido Island only received its current name in 1869: before that it was called Ezo. The name 北海道 was proposed by the researcher Matsuura Takeshiro — first as 北加伊道, where 加伊 represented the Ainu self-designation "kai". Today it is the second-largest island of Japan, about 83,000 km² together with small neighboring islands, and the only administrative unit in the country with the status of 道 rather than 県.
Let's examine why, out of six options, the government chose 北海道, what the ancient system of "five lands and seven roads" 五畿七道 has to do with it, and how Ezo became the last "road" added to it. We'll also talk about the Ainu — not as an exotic relic of the past, but as a living people with their own language, and look at how Hokkaido's climate and structure differ from the rest of Japan.
Hokkaido on the map: the country's second-largest island
Hokkaido lies in northern Japan and is separated from Honshu by the Tsugaru Strait. As an administrative unit, together with surrounding small islands, its area is about 83,000 km², roughly one-fifth of the country; the island itself without those neighbors is about 78,000 km², second in Japan after Honshu. About 5 million people live here, around 4% of the country's population. Administration is divided into 14 subprefectural districts (振興局, shinkōkyoku): nine "comprehensive" and five ordinary.
How Hokkaido differs from Honshu
The climate here is colder and drier: winters are snowy and long. The tsuyu rainy season, which floods the rest of Japan in June, does not climatically occur in Hokkaido at all — the meteorological service does not even announce its start and end for the island. Many cities, including the largest, were built during the Meiji era according to a plan, rather than growing gradually like the old cities of Honshu.
北海道: how Ezo became the country's last "road"
Until 1869, the island we call Hokkaido was called Ezo (蝦夷地) and was loosely governed by the Japanese state: life here revolved around Ainu communities and a small Japanese trading post in the south. In 1869, shortly after the Meiji Restoration, the imperial government decided to give the island a new name and incorporate it into the country on the same footing as other regions.
The name was proposed by the researcher and ethnographer Matsuura Takeshiro, who studied Ezo for many years and recorded Ainu names of rivers and villages. He presented six options to the government, including 北加伊道: in this word, 加伊 represented "kai" — as he said, the Ainu called themselves and their land. The government took this option as a basis and replaced 加伊 with the similar-sounding character 海 "sea" — thus in 1869 the name 北海道 appeared.
Why 道, not 県
The form of the name was not chosen by chance. In the ancient system of dividing the country, 五畿七道, "five lands and seven roads", the territory was divided into "road" circuits — Tokaido, Saikaido, and others, each with its own highway and administration. Hokkaido was named after this same model, adding it as the eighth "road" to the seven that existed. Over time, the other circuits split into prefectures, and the status of 道 remained only with Hokkaido.
| Status character | Meaning | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| 都 | metropolitan district | Tokyo — the only one in the country |
| 道 | "road" circuit | Hokkaido — the only one in the country |
| 府 | urban prefecture | Osaka, Kyoto |
| 県 | prefecture | 43 of 47 administrative units |
道 — значение: road, path, circuit — онъёми: ドウ、トウ — кунъёми: みち、いう — 12 штрих(ов). 道 — "road, circuit, path": on'yomi ドウ (dō), kun'yomi みち (michi). Hokkaido is the only one of Japan's 47 administrative units whose name ends with this character; the same character appears in 東海道 (Tokaido, the old highway) and in 武士道 (bushido, "the way of the warrior").
| Japanese | Reading | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| 北海道 | Hokkaidō · Hokkaidō | Hokkaido — "the road of the northern sea" |
| 札幌 | Sapporo · Sapporo | Sapporo — the administrative center of the island |
| 蝦夷 | Ezo · Ezo | Ezo — the island's name before 1869 |
| 北 | kita · kita | North — a cardinal direction |
| 道 | michi · michi | Road, path — the same character as in the island's name |
Write 道 along the guides — the character for "road" that made Hokkaido the only 道 in the country.
The Ainu: a people whose language and rights were recognized only in 2019
The Ainu lived in Hokkaido long before Japanese settlers: scholars link their roots to the bearers of the ancient Jōmon culture, who did not dissolve into the later wave of settlers from the mainland. The people have their own language, Ainu, unrelated to Japanese. In May 2019, a law on supporting the Ainu (アイヌ施策推進法) came into force, which explicitly calls them the indigenous people of northern Japan, primarily Hokkaido.
In the city of Shiraoi, in the south of the island, the National Ainu Museum and Park Upopoy (ウポポイ) opened in July 2020. Here the Ainu language, crafts, and rituals are presented as part of contemporary culture, not as a museum exhibit of the past.
How Ainu words became Japanese place names
Dozens of names on the map of Hokkaido are written with kanji based on the sound of an Ainu word, not its meaning. For example, Noboribetsu (登別) represents the Ainu "nupur-pet", "dark river", although the characters 登 "to climb" and 別 "separate" have nothing to do with a river. The same principle underlies the name of the island's administrative center.
Signs of Hokkaido: snow, milk, and a path through a tunnel
- Snow festivals in winter — not only in Sapporo: similar celebrations are held in other cities of the island, for example in Asahikawa.
- Dairy farming and potatoes — Hokkaido produces a significant share of the country's milk and potatoes, and the farm landscapes here are unlike the rice terraces of the rest of Japan.
- Seafood — crabs, sea urchin, and salmon from northern fisheries are distributed from here throughout the country.
- Shiretoko — a peninsula in the northeast of the island: in July 2005 it was added to the UNESCO World Natural Heritage list for its pristine ecosystem at the meeting point of ice and ocean.
- The Seikan Tunnel and the Shinkansen — the undersea tunnel under the Tsugaru Strait opened in 1988, but the Shinkansen line to the island only in 2016: for almost three decades Hokkaido was connected to Honshu only by conventional rail.
What these signs have in common
From the tunnel under the strait to the crab fishery — all of this conveys an island that was joined to the country later than others. Hokkaido even today largely develops its own economy rather than imitating its neighbors.
FAQ
- Where exactly on the map is Hokkaido Island located?
- Hokkaido is the northernmost of Japan's four main islands, separated from Honshu by the Tsugaru Strait. Its area as an administrative unit, together with surrounding small islands, is about 83,000 km², while the island itself without them is about 78,000 km², the second largest in the country after Honshu.
- Why is Hokkaido called 道 and not a prefecture?
- The name was given following the model of the ancient system 五畿七道, "five lands and seven roads": "road" circuits like Tokaido governed highways and adjacent provinces. In 1869 Hokkaido became the eighth such "road", and over time remained the only one: the other circuits of this system later split into ordinary prefectures.
- Who are the Ainu?
- The Ainu are the indigenous people of Hokkaido with their own language, unrelated to Japanese: scholars link their roots to the ancient Jōmon culture. In May 2019, a law came into force in Japan that for the first time explicitly called the Ainu the indigenous people of the northern part of the country.
- How is Hokkaido connected to Honshu?
- The islands are connected by the Seikan Tunnel under the Tsugaru Strait, opened in 1988: for almost three decades only conventional trains ran through it. In 2016 the Shinkansen line was extended to the island, and now you can also travel through the tunnel by high-speed train.
- What characters are used to write the name Hokkaido?
- 北海道, read as ほっかいどう (Hokkaidō). The name is composed of 北 "north", 海 "sea", and 道 "road, circuit" — "the road of the northern sea"; the island was named this way in 1869 following the model of the ancient "road" circuits.
- How does Hokkaido differ from the rest of Japan?
- In climate: winters here are snowy and long, and the tsuyu rainy season, which floods the rest of the country in June, does not climatically occur in Hokkaido at all. Its history also differs: the land was incorporated into Japan on the same footing only in 1869, many centuries later than Honshu.
Sources
Updated: 2026-09-22