(Redirected from Sapporo)

Sapporo (札幌)
Country	Japan
Island
Region	Hokkaido
Prefecture	Hokkaido prefecture
Area	1,121.12 km²
Population	1,882,424 as of December, 2005
Density	1668 / km²
Postal code
Area code

Sapporo Hall
Mayor	Fumio Ueda
Address	〒060-8611
	Sapporo-shi, Chuo-ku, Kita-1,Nishi-2
Phone	011-211-2111
External link	Sapporo City

Latitude & longitude	43°04′N 141°21′E
Elevation
City Symbols
Tree	Lilac
Flower	Lily of the valley
Bird	common cuckoo

Sapporo (札幌市, 'Sapporo-shi'^?) listen (help·info) is the fifth-largest city in Japan by population and the third-largest by geographic area. It is the capital of Hokkaido Prefecture.

Sapporo is primarily known outside Japan as the host city for the 1972 Winter Olympics, and for the annual Snow Festival which draws more than 2 million tourists from around the world. The city is also home to the eponymous Sapporo Breweries.

1 Early History
2 Wards
3 Buildings
4 Demographics
5 Sports
- 5.1 Professional Sports
- 5.2 Sports Club
6 Sister cities
7 See also
8 External links

Early History

Prior to its establishment, the area occupied by Sapporo (known as the Ishikari Plain) was home to a number of indigenous Ainu settlements. In 1866 at the end of the Edo Period construction began on a canal through the area, encouraging a number of early settlers to establish Sapporo village. The settlement's name was taken from the Ainu language, and can be translated as "large river running through a plain".

In 1868 (the officially recognised year celebrated as the 'birth' of Sapporo), the new Meiji government concluded that the existing adminstrative center of Hokkaido, which at the time was the port of Hakodate was in an unsuitable location for the defense and further development of the island. As a result it was determined that a new capital on the Ishikari Plain should be established. The plain itself provided an unusually large expanse of flat, well drained land which is relatively uncommon in the otherwise mountainous geography of Hokkaido.

During 1870-71, Kiyotaka Kuroda, vice-chairman of the Hokkaido Development Commission (kaitakushi) approached the American government for assistance in developing the land resulting in Horace Capron, Secretary of Agriculture under President Ulysses S. Grant being appointed as a special advisor to the commission. Construction began around a park, Odori Koen, which still remains as a green ribbon of recreational land splitting the central area of the city into two halves. The city closely followed the American-style grid plan with streets at right-angles to form city blocks; highly unusual in Japan even today.

The continuing expansion of the Japanese into Hokkaido continued, mainly due to migration from the main island of Honshu immediately to the south, and the prosperity of Hokkaido and particularly its capital grew to the point that the Development Commission was deemed uneccessary and was abolished in 1882.