Kitami, Hokkaido ¨C 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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