With the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate’s feudal domain system and the establishment of a centralized Meiji government, Hokkaido Development Commission was established and modern agricultural development was promoted.

Sapporo Agricultural College opened in Sapporo, and Dr. William Smith Clark, president of Massachusetts Agricultural College, was invited to serve as its president. While Clark’s tenure at Sapporo Agricultural College was short, lasting approximately eight months, his student William Wheeler assumed the position as the second president after his departure. As a center for higher education in American agricultural and civil engineering techniques, the college made a significant contribution to the modernization of not only Hokkaido but Japan as well. Furthermore, Dr. Clark’s famous words, “Boys, be ambitious like this old man,” which he reportedly addressed to his students upon his departure in April 1877, have become famous.

Let’s explore some places associated with Sapporo Agricultural College and the Hokkaido Development Commission.

Sapporo Clock Tower

The Sapporo Clock Tower, officially known as the Former Sapporo Agricultural College Drill Hall, was built in 1878 (Meiji 11) at the suggestion of Dr. Clark, the first president, and designed by Dr. William Wheeler, the second presidentl. It served as the central auditorium for military training for agricultural school students, as well as entrance and graduation ceremonies. While the current Hokkaido University campus has been relocated north of Sapporo Station, the clock tower remains in roughly its original location, indicating that Sapporo Agricultural School was located at the Hokkaido Development Commission (now the Former Hokkaido Government Office Building (Red Brick Building)).

Dr. Clark advocated for the construction of this drill hall, stressing the importance of military training for students at Sapporo Agricultural College, which was established with the aim of cultivating leaders for the development of Hokkaido. It is said that his own loss of many of his students in the US Civil War was the driving force behind his advocacy of military training.

Hokkaido University Campus

The campus of Hokkaido University, formerly Sapporo Agricultural College, lies on a vast swathe north of Sapporo Station, and serves as a haven for students and the citizens of Sapporo.

There is a bust of Dr. Clark on the Hokkaido University campus, but as Dr. Clark’s popularity grew and the number of tourists increased in the 1970s, restrictions were placed on tourist buses entering the campus. As a result, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Sapporo Agricultural College, a statue of Dr. Clark was erected at Hitsujigaoka Observatory, which offers a beautiful view overlooking Sapporo, and has become a famous tourist destination in Sapporo, although it has little to do with this famous quote.

The main road on campus is lined with buildings for the Faculty of Agriculture and other faculties, but behind these buildings is a farm, and within this farm there is a famous row of poplars. However, due to the aging of the poplars, they have been replaced with younger trees and some access restrictions have been put in place.

Hokkaido University Botanical Gardens

Dr. Clark, the first president of Sapporo Agricultural College, recommended to the Hokkaido Development Commission that “a botanical garden is necessary for the education of botany and horticulture.” The gardens were planned and designed by botanist Miyabe Kingo, a second-year student at Sapporo Agricultural College, and opened in 1886.

Making use of the topography, including springs that existed before the development of Sapporo, the gardens also feature exhibition gardens displaying plants unique to Hokkaido including local plants used by the Ainu people, and are open to the public.

Former Shimamatsu station post office, Boys, be Ambitious

At the invitation of the new Meiji government, which promoted modernization, Dr. William Smith Clark was appointed as the first president of Sapporo Agricultural College. After completing his approximately eight-month term, he offered his final farewell to his students in April 1877 at the Former Shimamatsu station, reciting his famous words: “Boys, be ambitious like this old man.” In an era before railroads, this station office provided passenger and horse transfers and accommodation. Dr. Clark, traveling from Sapporo to Muroran, delivered his final words to the students who had come to see him off. A monument to his departure still stands here, along with a monument marking the birthplace of cold-tolerance rice cultivation.

This site is also where dedicated private farmers successfully developed cold-climate rice cultivation techniques using bathwater for seedbeds and heated river water in canals called warm water channels to irrigate rice plants. Several years before Dr. Clark’s visit, this site also served as a significant spot for the president of agricultural collage to say goodbye to his students. However, Dr. Clark apparently recommended bread over rice, except when eating rice curry.

Kaminopporo, suburb of Sapporo

Even in the 1920s, roughly 50 years after the establishment of the Hokkaido Development Commission and Sapporo Agricultural College, based on the idea that dairy farming offered more stable production than field farming or rice farming, which were more directly and severely affected by cold damage and poor harvests, the Hokkaido Dairy Sales Association was established in Kaminoppro, a suburb of Sapporo, in 1925, exactly 100 years ago.

Mitsugi Sato, an engineer at the association and a graduate of Hokkaido University’s Faculty of Agriculture, began making butter alone, using a hand-cranked churn (butter-making machine). This site later became a training center for modern dairy farming techniques and one of the centers for the development of dairy farming technology in Japan. Mitsugi Sato later became the first president of Snow Brand Milk Products and also served as president of Rakuno Gakuen University (Dairy agriculture University).

We can enjoy watching many historic buildings constructed during the Meiji and Taisho periods. As the economic and marine transportation center of Hokkaido, Otaru was home to the Otaru branches of major corporations and government offices. Many of the buildings are made of volcanic, easily workable tuff, such as Otaru softstone or Sapporo softstone.

Nippon Yusen Kaisha Otaru Branch

Completed in 1906, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha Otaru Branch, among Otaru’s many historic buildings, was designed by Shichijiro Satachi, who studied under Josiah Conder at the Department of Architecture at the Imperial College of Engineering (the predecessor to the Department of Architecture at the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Engineering), a school that produced many Meiji-era architects. The design faithfully inherited the teachings of his mentor, J. Conder, and features an exterior in the “Early Modern European Revival” style. The entire building is designed with both aesthetic and practicality in mind, and visitors can tour the interior.

At the time of its completion, the building featured a dedicated boat entrance and import/export warehouse in front, and a railroad track (the former Temiya Line) behind it, making it a symbol of Otaru’s booming economy. The abandoned site of the Temiya Line has been turned into a walking path, and visitors are free to stroll around.

In addition to the Otaru Branch of Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK), Otaru is home to many other historic buildings, including the former Otaru Branch of the Bank of Japan. Otaru also boasted a thriving glass industry, producing fishing floats and kerosene lamps. These glass products are now sold as popular tourist souvenirs in souvenir shop using abandoned warehouses and other locations.

In the port town of Otaru, you can sample fresh seafood at the market. While prices may have risen slightly compared to the past to cater to tourists, you can still casually sample dishes like seafood bowls and sushi.

Otaru Canal

From 1860 onward, beginning of the Meiji period, Otaru developed as a maritime shipping hub between Honshu, mainland Japan, and Hokkaido. It became an important port for shipping herring and coal from Hokkaido. To enhance its port functions, plans were drawn up for the construction of a canal to accommodate barges loading and unloading cargo from large ships anchored within the port.

Unlike typical canals, which are constructed by digging through land, this unusual canal was planned, with a reclaimed land area created on the sea, forming a waterway between the shore and the canal. As a result, various opinions were expressed regarding the canal construction plan, and the decision-making process was difficult. However, with the advice of Isamu Hiroi, a member of the second class of students at Sapporo Agricultural College who was educated by the second vice president, William Wheeler, a student of Dr. Clark, and who studied civil engineering in the United States and Germany after graduating from the college and who held a strong influence in the Japan Society of Civil Engineers, construction finally began in 1914 and was completed in 1923. This year marks the 102nd anniversary of the canal’s completion. As its name suggests, Sapporo Agricultural College was the predecessor of Hokkaido University’s Faculty of Agriculture, but from the time it opened, it was an educational institution offering a wide range of fields, not just agriculture, including civil engineering and chemistry.

The canal was completed after many twists and turns, but in 1927, shortly after the canal’s completion, the second phase of Otaru Port development began, gradually switching to a wharf system where large ships would dock directly at the pier and load and unload cargo. As a result, marine transport by barge began to decline, and by the 1970s, the canal’s role as a barge transport came to an end. With its role now fulfilled, a debate arose between those who wanted to fill in the canal for more effective use and those who wanted to preserve it as a tourist attraction.

This debate was settled in the late 1980s by filling in part of the canal and using the rest as a tourist attraction. Today, the area around Otaru Canal has become an international tourist city, attracting many tourists who visit the historic warehouses and former factory sites, as well as the various facilities that have been renovated from them.