| Hakodate City is located in the southeast area of Oshima Peninsula.
The peninsula is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and Tsugaru Channel from
the east, south and north. The western side of the peninsula includes the
towns of Kamiiso-cho, Nanae-cho and Shikabe-cho. |
 | 300,140 (02/2005) | |
 | 677.68km2 (12/2004) |
 | E140'44" N41'46" |
 | Hakodate seaport was originally founded as "Tomoe seaport" because of the comma (tomoe) shape of the area. It was later renamed Hakodate seaport. Hakodate's good harbor location makes it the front door to Hokkaido. Hokkaido has enjoyed an active trade market since the time when the island was originally called "Yezo ground." In1454, Hakodate was named from the tsugaru clan Masamichi Kawano, who
built a large manor house in the fishing village, changing the village's name from Usukeshi (meaning "bay" in the Ainu language) to Hako-date
(Hako meaning "box" and the house that was built looked like a box).It became "Hakodate." At the same time, the name of the island changed from Yezo to Hokkaido. In 1869, Hako-date's kanji characters changed from (箱館) to it's present form (函館). |
|
