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Hokkaido Museum

1.2 Million Years of History

Established in 2015, the Hokkaido Museum is a merger of two museums, the Historical Museum of Hokkaido and the Hokkaido Ainu Culture Research Centre. The museum introduces Hokkaido's nature, history, and culture from different aspects, including the transformation of Hokkaido and the history of the Ainu people.

The Hokkaido Museum was established in 2015 as a result of the merger of two museums, the Historical Museum of Hokkaido and the Hokkaido Ainu Culture Research Centre. The Hokkaido Museum has two floors above ground and two underground, the 3,000 square meter Main Exhibition Room is the heart of the museum.

Two Elephant Skeletons stand in the lobby of the exhibition room, kicking off this journey of discovery. The mammoth from the north and a Naumann’s Elephant that migrated from the south were the first inhabitants of Hokkaido.

The Hokkaido Museum introduces Hokkaido’s nature, history and culture from five different themes: Hokkaido's Tale of 1.2 Million Years, The Culture and Recent History of the Ainu, The Secret of Hokkaido's Unique Identity, Towards Our Time and The Ecosystems of Hokkaido. Inside the Main Exhibition Room, you can see the canoes used by the Ainu people, a model of the Former Hokkaido Government Office Building, built by the pioneers of Hokkaido, as well as radio and television sets and other items that are closely related to people’s lives over the past 100 years.