This was part of my Golden Week vacation 2012. After visiting Matsumae Castle, I enjoyed the great night view from Mt. Hakodate.
A day later I decided to visit Goryokaku Fort.
Goryokaku Tower is the first thing you’ll see when approaching the fort.
Access is provided by bus and by streetcar. If you come by car please note that Goryokaku Tower itself doesn’t have a parking lot, you’ll have to use the nearby parking lots.
The Goryokaku Tower was originally opened on December 1st, 1964. However the new tower was opened on April 1st, 2006.
Fort Goryokaku in Hakodate
With a height of approximately 100 m you get a nice view of the star-shaped fort (Goryokaku Fort, 五稜郭 = five-sided fortification).
It is a very popular cherry blossom viewing spot. I’m sure you can tell why by looking at the photos!
The construction of Goryokaku Fort dates back to 1853 when a US fleet arrived at a Japanese port. This historically significant event is referred to as the “arrival of the black ships“.
Succumbing to the US’s demands that Japan should open its doors to the rest of the world, the Tokugawa shogunate (徳川幕府) concluded the Treaty of Peace and Amity between the United States of America and Japan in 1854 and thus opened Hakodate Port for international trade.
Aiming to maintain governance over Hakodate, the Tokugawa shogunate instituted the Hakodate Magistrate’s Office which promoted land reclamation and industrial development while fortifying the defensive capabilities of the area.
When the Magistrate’s Office building was later moved, Ayasaburo Takeda (1827-1880), a researcher of Dutch studies, was ordered to design a new fort.
He built it modeled after European citadel towns. One reason was to be able to defend enemies more efficiently than with usual Japanese castles.
The star shape allowed a greater number of gun emplacements and also reduced the number of blind spots.
Inside of Goryokaku Tower you can see the fort’s history told by miniature figures.
Ayasaburo Takeda with the construction plans of the star-shaped fort.
Discontent with the Tokugawa shogunate led to the Boshin War (戊辰戦争). Goryokaku is famous for being the site of the last battle of this war.
Eventually Goryokaku Fort was placed under siege by the new government forces. The turbulent period that marked the end of the Tokugawa shogunate and the start of the Meiji Restoration thus came to a close.
In 1914 Goryokaku Fort opened to the public as a park. In 1952, it was designated as a special historic site by the national government.
Star-shaped forts can be found everywhere in the world, but mainly in Europe.
Now that I know about them I hope to visit some once I’m back in Europe! ^_^
Got to love those thingies where young and old can pose for photos! Adorable!
Apart from a good view of the fort, the tower also provided a great view of Hakodate in general. Thanks to its location which is close to the port, the ocean was also nearby.
And some mountains in the background even had snow on the top!
I left the tower to walk around in the huge Goryokaku Fort Park which had cherry blossom trees all along the moat!
You could even take a boat tour!
As you can see the weather got worse – yet again. I really wasn’t very lucky during that vacation.
The tower can be seen from almost every corner of the park.
They hung up the carp flags for Children’s Day.
I love when I can take photos of cherry blossom trees with blue mountains in the background that have some snow on the top. My favorite one is of course Mt. Fuji! *g*
A bird thinking its king of the world?! *g*
Some people were having a picnic (hanami: flower viewing) despite the bad weather.
This is the Hakodate Bugyosho (函館奉行所): Hakodate Magistrate’s Office
As mentioned earlier Hakodate’s Magistrate’s Office was established in Hakodate by the Edo Shogunate when the port of Hakodate opened under the Japan-US Treaty of Peace and Amity. The office was initially built at the foot of Mt. Hakodate.
That’s the original one.
The repair project of Goryokaku was launched by the city of Hakodate with the recreation of Hakodate Magistrate’s Office as its main goal. The archaeological investigation of Goryokaku was started in 1985. The building plan was carefully detailed on the basis of old photographs, documents and drawings as well as the results of the excavation.
The reconstruction of Hakodate Magistrate’s Office took 4 years (2006-2010).
Inside there was a lot of information about the layout of the original office.
The inside looked relatively new, but still had many interesting things to explore.
Here’s a good map that shows where other star-shaped forts can be found. Need to visit the one in Germany once I’m back home!
And there’s also another one in Japan!
Have you ever been there?
The office on the left and the tower on the right.
For the tourists: You could dress up as warrior and have your photo taken.
Here’s another good layout of the whole fort. Quite an awesome design!
It started raining cats and dogs and I decided to leave, but as you can see there were some hardcore Japanese people who tried to enjoy the day despite the weather! .gif)
I left the park to eat lunch and then went back to Central Hakodate to explore the area there a bit more.
If you take the streetcar, get off at “Goryokaku koen mae” and walk 15 mins.
Looks like an amazing place to see the cherry blossoms and a nice bit of history there.
Absolutely! On top of that Hakodate has a very international atmosphere like Kobe and Yokohama.
Maybe I can display that in future blog posts a bit better! :)
You see so many great places! I have yet to travel into northern Japan, but your pictures are definitely inspiring! Thanks for sharing.
I guess it’s quite far to travel all the way from Okinawa, but you definitely should if you get the chance to. I bet it’s quite different from where you live! ^__^
As usual, very nice pictures!
These star-shaped forts were designed originally by Vauban, a famous French military engineer. [you show his picture]. They are justly renowned, and on some UNESCO list. They have been much imitated, of course. In France, in addition with the complete ones you show, there are another dozen places or more where he reinforced and improved existing fortifications. You should certainly visit the one in Germany. I would also recommend the Neuf-Brisach one in Alsace, actually closer to Bavaria.
Goryaku fort is obviously the best thing in Hakodate, which doesn’t look too interesting otherwise.
Thanks for the extra input. I also had that in my pamphlets, but I thought it would be just too much of information to include in a single blog post.
I find it quite fascinating that this kind of design found its way to Japan! :)
If you like cities like Kobe or Yokohama you’ll surely like Hakodate! It has a very international atmosphere.
I can understand that visitors to Japan don’t care much about cities that have a lot of European influence and don’t feel very Japanese, but for people who have been living in Japan for some time those cities often are very tempting.
Very nice pictures despite the weather.
I just learned about the star shaped place on TV a week ago. :music2:
I hope you get to visit some day! ^___^
It’s a very nice park and Hakodate can be compared to cities like Kobe and Yokohama. So if you like those, I’m sure you’d enjoy Hakodate as well!
Star shaped forts…funny how I never heard about this D:
And there’s so many in Europe as well?! :sweatdrop2:
You never stop learning , huh? :hihi:
I will definitely visit this place !
Don’t worry. I also never heard about them before going to Hokkaido! ^____^;