Sapporo turned an Ainu river name into Asia's first Winter Olympics
Sapporo, Hokkaido's capital on the Toyohira's alluvial fan, grew from Ainu plains and Matsumae trade posts after the 1869 Hokkaido Development Commission. From Ainu sat poro pet—"dry, great river"—it hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics, Asia's first, after a canceled 1940 bid.
The city was planned from scratch. A canal dug across Ainu land from 1866 drew the first settlers, and in 1868, the year now celebrated as Sapporo's birth, the Meiji government judged the port of Hakodate too exposed and badly placed to govern Hokkaido and chose a new capital on the Ishikari Plain. Kuroda Kiyotaka of the Development Commission sought American help in 1870 and 1871, and Horace Capron, agriculture secretary under Ulysses S. Grant, came as adviser. Streets were laid at right angles around Odori Park, still a green strip splitting the centre.
Other Americans left marks too. Edwin Dun arrived in 1876 to start sheep and cattle ranches and showed locals how to make butter, cheese, ham and sausage. William S. Clark, president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, spent eight months in 1876 and 1877 as founding vice-president of Sapporo Agricultural College, the forerunner of Hokkaido University, teaching science and lecturing on the Bible as ethics. A railway to Otaru opened in 1880, and a red-brick neo-baroque government office went up in 1888.
Growth came in steps. The streetcar began running in 1918, the same year Hokkaido Imperial University became Japan's fifth imperial university, and Sapporo officially became a city in 1922. Chosen in 1937 for the 1940 Winter Olympics, it lost them when war with China broke out, and American naval aircraft bombed it in July 1945. The first Snow Festival took place in 1950, and mergers with surrounding towns continued through 1967.
The subway opened in 1971, making Sapporo the fourth Japanese city with one, and the Winter Games finally arrived from 3 to 13 February 1972. Maria Callas gave her last public performance there in November 1974. Later the city hosted the Asian Winter Games in 1986, 1990 and 2017, and its dome staged matches at the 2002 football and 2019 rugby World Cups.
Source: Sapporo
