---
node: spot_sapporo_hokkaido_shrine
type: spot
slug: hokkaido_shrine
destination: dest_sapporo
title: "Hokkaidō Shrine"
lead: "Hokkaidō Shrine was founded in 1869, the year the island was renamed and formally colonised, and enshrines three deities of land development along with the Meiji Emperor. It stands in a park of fifteen hundred cherry trees."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_sapporo_hokkaido_shrine.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:(JPN-Hokkaido)_Hokkaido_Shrine_2026-06-06.jpg"
image_author: "S5A-0043"
image_license: "CC BY 4.0"
---

## Overview

The shrine was built as an instrument of settlement policy: a Shinto centre for a territory that had been Ainu land, established in the same year as the Colonisation Commission. That history is not on the signage and is worth knowing while you visit. The grounds are large and wooded, with squirrels and, occasionally, foxes; the cherry and plum blossom arrive together in early May, a month after Honshū.

## Highlights

Come in early May, when cherry and plum flower at once and the shrine holds its spring festival. The teahouse by the main gate sells hangetsu dumplings that people queue for. Maruyama Park adjoins it, and the trail up Mount Maruyama from the shrine's western edge takes about forty minutes.