Before Hokkaido was Hokkaido, it was known to mainland Japan as Ezo. Further back still, indigenous Ainu communities referred to the northern expanse as Ainu Mosir, a name they had used for untold generations.
Yet the story of humanity in these lands began long before the Ainu, and today, Hokkaido’s furthest reaches are hoping the treasures of long-forgotten peoples could be the key to drawing curious travelers in search of a glimpse at Japan’s bygone past to the deep north.
The Okhotsk subprefecture in northeastern Hokkaido derives its name from the Okhotsk culture, a collection of communities that migrated throughout the modern-day Sea of Okhotsk from the 4th to the 12th centuries. At its peak from the 5th to 9th centuries, the maritime-based Okhotsk peoples stretched from northern Hokkaido, throughout the Kuril Islands and across the breadth of Sakhalin in modern-day Russia.
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