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Carrillo Silva, Diana

Prof. Philip Seaton
Introduction to Historiography
August 3rd, 2015
Words 2,378
Urban development of Sapporo and the influence of American city planning.
Introduction
From the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry with the objective to open the Japanese ports for
international trade in 1853, the Japanese contact with the Western culture was extended. The urban
changes related to this event became evident after the Meiji Restoration, when the government
consciously started Japans modernization process (Tipton, 2002). Sapporos transformation was
not an immediate event, it was part of a slow progress caused by the irregular development of Japan
from the Early Meiji until now. The aim of this essay is to provide understanding on how the
American ideology influenced the urbanization of Sapporo and how the present layout highly
depended upon the 1868s original plan.

This Westernization did not only have an effect in the Japanese way of living, dressing or
behaving, it also became apparent in the display of the city and the architecture as the incorruptible
witness of history, for one cannot talk about a great building without recognising in it the witness of
an era, its culture, its society, their intentions (Octavio Paz). The analysis will be developed
through a comparison between the origins in the planning of Sapporo in the Early Meiji Period and
urban theories of other cities that may have influenced Japanese design. Also, it will be discussed
how American culture may have had an effect on the following development from then to today.

Sapporos Urban Planning

The history of Sapporo as the administrative centre of Hokkaido starts at the beginning of the Meiji
Period, in the Meiji Restoration. The government was the principal sponsor of urban development
in Japanese cities. Although the private companies may have patronized some changes in
infrastructure, the major growth was a result of the capital destined by the authorities and the type
of city they wanted to plan and build. This is the first difference between American and Japanese
urban development as Parker states according to Wales, in the Far East, and especially Japan it is
also important to note that, traditionally, private capital had less influence on urban development
plans than firms enjoyed in the US (Parker, 2004).

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In 1868 the city is founded as replacement of Hakodate in its functions for its inconvenient location.
Hakodates proximity to the seashore made it difficult to defend in the event of an attack; also, in
terms of administration, it is appropriate to relocate the place where the bureaucratic organization
and political power is concentrated, equidistant from almost every urban and rural community under
the rule of this government. Sapporo is located in the Ishikari Plain, the widest plain in Hokkaido
Island. In terms of urbanization, this enables the city to grow as vast as possible, with the space
topography as the acknowledged limit. Also, the decision of placing the administrative centre there
speaks of the understanding that the city is not an inmutable space, it is in constant change and a
urban area in process of developing has always the possibility to grow, not necessarily in a
horizontal disposition but in terms of densification.

In 1869 the Kaitakushi (Development Commission) chose Shima Yoshitake to begin the urban
display of Sapporo. The layout was a squared grid divided in north and south by a green belt (Image
1.1), the first idea of what would become Odori Park. In the north part, the government buildings
were surrounding the Kaitakushi office, while in the south, entertainment and commercial
infrastructure would be placed (Tsusumi, 2004). In this initial plan the placement of the central
division was different from the actual location.1

Image 1.1 Shima Yoshitake Plan for Sapporo

From Sapporo Odori Park Webpage <http://www.sapporo-park.or.jp/odori/parkinfo.html>

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However, in 1871 Yoshitake was dismissed from the job and Iwamura Michitoshi took over the
urban planning of Sapporo. He modified the original plan by making wider streets and changing the
original function of the green belt, instead Kab-sen was constructed where Odori Park is currently
located. It was a firebreak of 105 metres in the middle of the city from where four blocks more on
the East-West axis would be placed and six in the north-south one. The objective of the unoccupied
land was to prevent the advancement of a fire.2

It is evident that Odori Park is what makes Sapporo different from any other urban design. Its
process of transformation started in 1876 when 6600 m of flower gardens were constructed in two
blocks of the belt. In 1909, a Japanese landscaper turned the land into a walking area.3 It was then
when the city started to develop around the park in the original squared grid (Tsusumi, 2004) which
is still visible today, it is more than just evident, it became the basis of the city.

Different theories and factors should be considered in order to understand the origins of the plan of
Sapporo. First, what Michitoshi planned may not be what the government actually constructed,
changes occur when design is laid on reality due to unpredictable external factors. Secondly, the
influence of the square grid seems uncertain. While the Sapporo Tourism Official Website and some
authors like Irish state that the Kaitakushi organized Sapporo into a planned city modelled after
Kyoto which was designed based on the layout of Changan, China (Choi and Kiang, 1998),
several tourist information websites claim that Sapporo was built based on a North American style
rectangular street system.4 Also, the factors that Western advisers were hired by the Meiji
government to devise plans in other parts of Japan and their desire to become similar to the
occident, specially America, suggest that their methods may have had an effect on Sapporos plan.

Urban Planning Theories and Cities

Little can be known of what influenced both urban planners and government authorities, however,
their theories are materialized in the city layout. The schemes of the cities mentioned can be
analyzed in order to find contrasts and similarities among them. These will be Changan, Kyoto and
New York, the most important American city in terms of urban display. Finally it will be explained
how they relate to Sapporo.
2

From Sapporo Odori Park Webpage <http://www.sapporo-park.or.jp/odori/parkinfo.html>

ibid.

4 From

Japan Guide Webpage <http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2163.html>

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Changan
The first statement that infers that Japan could have been influenced by city models of China is that
urbanization started in the former much later than in the latter. Also the relationship between both of
them has always been important, even more when Japan closed its ports to foreign ships
(1639-1854) except from Dejima, the only link between China and Japan, and almost the only link
between Japan and the rest of the world (Tellier 2009 p.222). Finally, the layout as a possible
evidence will be presented.
Changan is located on a fertile plain
land in the middle of basin of the Wei,
Feng and Chan rivers. It was linked to
the three rivers by a canal network and
was once the worlds largest city at the
time, being surrounded by a 36kilometer wall. According to Tellier, the
city was the most important and firstclass administrative and commercial
center then. This urban area was based
on another Chinese city, both use the
principal avenue as the central axis
ending with the Imperial Palace with the
purpose of highlighting it.

Image 1.2 Changan City Plan

The outline of the area is a grid system divided by land uses, the markets in the central part on both
sides of the street and the residential area of 108 alleys around them (Image 1.2). Besides the
principal avenue, the city had six main roads that allow access to the main gates, the rest were
secondary roads, eleven in the south-north axis and fourteen in the east-west side. Along with the
roads ran rows of water drainage and trees on both sides. For security and administrative reasons,
the residential alleys and markets were enclosed structures.5

55

From Chinese International Press Wegpage <http://arts.cultural-china.com/en/83Arts7518.html>

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Kyoto
Heian-kyo, Kyotos ancient name, was founded
in 794 and it was outlined to be wider than the
first planned capital Heijo. Choi and Kiang
argue that the Japanese government copied the
layout of the city and some of the most
important buildings of the model of the Tang
dynasty, but not only that, Chinas bureaucratic
reforms were also taken as a basis for the
Japanese administrative system. The first cities
were not as broad as now, Heian-kyo covered
24 squared kilometres, 4.8 km from east to
west and 5.6 from north to south. As a security
measure, the area was surrounded by a terrace
made of mud and a ditch.

Image 1.3 Heian-kyo City Plan

Within these limits, the city was designed in a perfect squared grid system (Image 1.3), there were
more than 1,200 blocks. The citys outline based on a principal avenue that divided the city in two
areas and ended with the Imperial Palace, the entrance was opened to the south as it was the only
spot due to the natural conditions of the terrain. The Imperial Palace housed several land uses other
than governmental like commercial and high nobility residential quarters, the middle and low
classes lived outside this area. The Palace burned several times throughout history and is now
located two kilometres east from its original place.

New York and Central Park

In the early XIX century New Yorks population highly increased due to the European immigrants
in the East Coast, a new urban plan was needed. In 1811 the new layout for Manhattan was
approved, it would be a prefect grid: twelve avenues from north to south, crossed at right angles by
155 streets. The territory of the island was formed by roads, farms, marshes, canals, forests and
wetlands so the roads needed to be wide enough to ease air circulation and prevent epidemics. The
project caused controversy and social protests because of the demand of the demolition of many
buildings (Beveridge and Rocheleau, 1998).

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In 1853, the Legislature of the State of New York purchased an area of 2.8 square kilometres for
public space because concrete was devouring the city. In 1857, the Central Park Commission was
created and a contest for the design of the new park was called. The winning project was
Greensward Plan submitted by two landscape architects: Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert
Vaux. The park was located in the middle of the city, the size of 204 blocks (Image 1.4), the
landscape was designed against the earlier 18th-century trend of Neoclassicism, it was the first
public park in USA (Rybczynsky, 2003).

Image 1.4 Vaux and Olmsteads Original 1863 Plan.

How the theories of urban planning relate to Sapporo

First of all, the squared grid is visible in the four cities, it is impossible to claim from which one of
these cities Sapporo has an influence. However these other factors will be considered: location of
the government buildings, land use and public spaces. The plans of Yoshitake (the original layout of
Sapporo) and the cities of Changan and Kyoto have a central axis that divides the city ending with
the visual element of the principal state building. But Yoshitakes original idea was changed and the
placement of the Hokkaido Government Office is not the base of Sapporo layout anymore.

Once again in these three cities, the grid is actually used to divide the land uses according to a
hierarchical order where the government is the most important use followed by commerce,
amusement and housing. Only that the Sapporos plan which included that type of distribution was
the original plan, in the Michitoshi layout the disposition of the uses was not the most important
reason of design, it was the security of the city. On the other hand, the plan on New York is just
divided in a rectangular grid with any type of contrast in the whole regular layout caused by a
hierarchical situation of a building and without organization of land uses.

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In terms of public spaces, Changan and Kyoto have nothing to contribute to Sapporos layout but
New York. The green belt that Yoshitake wanted for the central axis of the city is similar to the idea
of Central Park, however, Michitoshi transformed it into a vacant land. Regardless of that, what
Odori Park is now is highly similar to Yoshitakes original idea recovered in 1876. Unfortunately,
during World War II, the area had to be used for potato production for the famine and after the war,
when the food supply had improved, Odori became an empty land again.6

On the next years, the occupation forces used the park for constructing athletic facilities like
baseball fields and tennis courts. But in 1950, the control over the area was returned to the Japanese
government and since then the development of the park escalated to what is seen today. Although
Central Park seems the perfect antecedent for the public space in Sapporo, in 1873, just before the
recuperation of Odori, Japan built its firsts public parks: Asukayama, Ueno, Shiba, Asakusa and
Fukagawa Park.7 Still, none of this sites has a rectangular grid as Odori and Central Park.

Conclusion
Two points were discussed in this essay: how the American ideology influenced the urbanization of
Sapporo and how the present layout highly depended upon the 1868s original plan. The city
according to the layout and the land use is more similar to that of the cities of Changan and
therefore Kyoto but the concept of a central squared public park is certainly closer to the American
model. Both theories seem to have had an effect on Sapporos distribution, but, although there is a
precedent, the city managed to organize its elements of urbanism according to its needs, resulting in
a unique urban display that serves a specific way of living.

Although the land use of Yoshitake was not respected, the green belt he planned became the most
important characteristic of the urban layout, as a defining element of todays display, the most
important buildings are located around Odori Park. Also, although the focus of the paper was on
American impact, Japan not only had the influence of this Western country, Britain and France were
also trascendental figures. Europe has developed a wider culture of public parks than America, still
the squared grid is not part of their designing. Nonetheless, the influence of European public spaces
and gardens on Japans design should be considered as possible direction of future study.

From Sapporo Odori Park Webpage < http://www.sapporo-park.or.jp/odori/parkinfo.html>

From Tokyo Kita City Webpage <http://www.city.kita.tokyo.jp/docs/facility/055/005518.htm>

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Bibliography

- Beveridge C. and Rocheleau P. (1998). Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing the American
Landscape. USA: Universe.

- Irish, A. (2009). Hokkaido: A History of Ethnic Transition and Development on Japan's Northern
Island. USA: McFarland & Co.

- Parker, S. (2004). Urban Theory and the Urban Experience: Encountering the City. London:
Routledge.

- Tellier, L. (2009). Urban World History: An Economic and Geographical Perspective. Canada:
Presses de lUniversit du Qubec.

- Tipton, E. (2002). Modern Japans History: A Social and Political History. London: Routledge.
- Waley, P. (2000) Tokyo: Patterns of Familiarity and Partitions of Difference, in Marcuse, P. and
van Kempen, R. (eds) Globalizing Cities. A New Spatial Order?, Oxford and Malden, MA:
Blackwell, 12757.

- Rybczynsky W. (2003). A Clearing In The Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the
19th Century. USA: Scribner.

Online references

- Choi E. and Kiang E. (1998). Kyoto: History and Background. Columbia University. Obtained in
June 4th, 2015 from <http://www.columbia.edu/itc/ealac/V3613/kyoto/intro/cityplan.html>

- Tsusumi J. (2004). Regional characteristics of building supply in a newly developed city in

Japan. Dela 21. Pg. 495-504. Obtained in August 1st, 2015 from < https://www.google.com/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCoQFjACahUKEwju7_Y94bHAhXMKZQKHWBxBlI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dlib.si%2Fstream%2FURN
%3ANBN%3ASI%3ADOCX4HMU620%2Fa1d092a7-7c3d-4a60-8081-7ec00251d733%2FPDF&ei=CDy8Vf6XO8zT0ATg
4pmQBQ&usg=AFQjCNGwYWzJJQV6MejC-6Udc8FDnhnWQ&sig2=RN2j7-8E7Gi6cUf7SSei5g&bvm=bv.99261572,d.dGo>

- Ancient Capital City: Changan. Chinese International Press. Obtained in July 5th, 2015 from
<http://arts.cultural-china.com/en/83Arts7518.html>

- Sapporo Tourism Official Website. Basic Information. Culture and Tourism Bureau. Obtained
in June 1st, 2015 from <http://www.welcome.city.sapporo.jp/learn/basicinfo/?lang=en>

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Images

- Image 1.1 Shima Yoshitake Plan for Sapporo. Obtained in July 31st, 2015 from <http://
japanfocus.org/-Vivian-Blaxell/3211/article.html>

- Image 1.2 Changan City Plan .Obtained in July 5th, 2015 from <http://www.columbia.edu/itc/
ealac/V3613/kyoto/intro/cityplan.html>

- Image 1.3 Heian-kyo City Plan. Obtained in July 5th, 2015 from <http://
dessenhillman.tumblr.com/post/50925772961/urban-form-and-architecture>

- Image 1.4 Vaux and Olmsteads Original 1863 Plan, Obtained in August 1st, 2015 from <http://
www.codex99.com/cartography/109.html>