Hakodate was Japan's first city whose port was opened to foreign trade in 1854, as a result of
Convention of Kanagawa, and used to be the most important port in northern Japan. The city was the biggest city in Hokkaido before the
Great Fire of Hakodate in 1934.
Pre–Meiji Restoration Hakodate (like other parts of around Hokkaido) was originally populated by the
Ainu. The name "Hakodate" may have originated from an Ainu word, ('shallow fort'). Another possibility is that it means 'box' or 'building' in Japanese which refers to the castle built by the Kono (Kano) clan in the fifteenth century. Hakodate was founded in 1454, when Kono Kaganokami Masamichi constructed a large manor house in the fishing village of Usukeshi, the word for bay in Ainu. After his death, Masamichi's son, Kono Suemichi, and family were driven out of Hakodate into nearby
Kameda during the Ainu rebellion in 1512 and little history was recorded for the area during the next 100 years. There was constant low-level conflict in the Oshima peninsula at the time with the Ainu, as armed merchants, like the Kono family, established bases to control trade in the region. This conflict culminated in an uprising from 1669 to 1672, led by Ainu warrior
Shakushain after which the Ainu in the region were suppressed. Hakodate flourished during the
Hoei period (1704–11), and many new temples were founded in the area. The town's fortunes received a further boost in 1741 when the
Matsumae clan, which had been granted nearby areas on the
Oshima Peninsula as a
march fief, moved its Kameda magistracy to Masamichi's house in Hakodate. In 1779, the
Tokugawa shogunate took direct control over Hakodate, which triggered rapid development in the area. Merchant
Takadaya Kahei, who is honoured as the founder of Hakodate port, set up trading operations, which included opening the northern
Etorofu sea route to the
Kuril island fisheries. He is credited with turning Hakodate from a trading outpost into a thriving city. A Hakodate magistracy was established in 1802. By 1807, the power of the Tokugawa government extended to the entire region. However, in 1821, the central government relaxed their control of the area and restored the Matsumae clan to the full powers they had before. As one of few points of Japanese contact with the outside world, Hakodate was soon host to several overseas consulates. The Russian consulate included a chapel from where
Nicholas of Japan is credited with introducing
Eastern Orthodox Christianity to Japan in 1861 (now the
Japanese Orthodox Church). The Orthodox church is neighbored by several other historical missionary churches, including
Anglican and
Catholic. Hakodate also played a central role in the
Boshin War between the
Tokugawa shogunate and the
Meiji Emperor which followed Perry's opening of Japan. Shogunate rebel
Enomoto Takeaki fled to Hakodate with the remnants of his navy and his handful of French advisers in winter 1868, including
Jules Brunet. They formally established the
Republic of Ezo on December 25. The republic tried unsuccessfully to gather international recognition to foreign legations in Hakodate, including the Americans, French, and Russians. The
Naval Battle of Hakodate was fought from 4 to 10 May 1869, between the remnants of the
Tokugawa shogunate navy and the newly formed
Imperial Japanese Navy. It was a decisive victory for the Imperial Japanese Navy. On 14 June 1868, Hakodate was designated as an urban prefecture (府 fu), one of the first two, the other being
Kyoto. On February 8, 1882, it was enlarged into Hakodate-ken, and then became part of
Hokkaido on January 26, 1886. The rebels occupied Hakodate's famous European-style
Goryōkaku fort and used it as the centre of their defences in southern Hokkaido. Government forces defeated the secessionists in the
Battle of Hakodate in 1869 and the city and fort were surrendered to emperor. Military leader,
Hijikata Toshizō, was one of those slain in the fighting. In 1878,
Isabella Bird reported of the city in her travelogue: The streets are very wide and clean, but the houses are mean and low. The city looks as if it had just recovered from a conflagration. The houses are nothing but tinder… Stones, however, are its prominent feature. Looking down upon it from above you see miles of grey boulders, and realise that every roof in the windy capital is "hodden doun" by a weight of paving stones.
20th century to present day Hakodate was awarded
city status on August 1, 1922. On March 21, 1934, a serious fire had destroyed around two-thirds of all the buildings in Hakodate. This event also led to many residents leaving and subsequently depopulating the city. The city was subjected to two Allied bombing raids on 14 and 15 July 1945. Around 400 homes were destroyed on the western side of Hakodate-yama and an Aomori-Hakodate ferry was attacked with 400 passengers killed. In 1976, a defecting
Soviet pilot named
Viktor Belenko flew his plane into the civilian airport in Hakodate. Hakodate's size nearly doubled on December 1, 2004, when the town of Minamikayabe (from
Kayabe District), and the towns of Esan and Toi, and the village of Todohokke (all from
Kameda District), were merged into it. The
Hokkaido Shinkansen line opened on 26 March 2016. The undersea
Seikan Tunnel with the
Shinkansen rail line greatly reduced the travel time from
Honshu to Hakodate. In April 2023, Jun Ōizumi became the mayor of Hakodate. Ōizumi, the older brother of actor
Yo Oizumi, defeated 3-term incumbent Toshiki Kudō, receiving more than 80% of the vote. File:Hakodate circa 1930.JPG|Hakodate Port circa 1930 File:TBMs and SB2Cs dropping bombs.jpg|alt=Photograph of a large number of propeller-driven monoplanes dropping bombs|US Navy
Grumman TBF Avenger aircraft dropping bombs on Hakodate during July 1945 == Geography ==