Matsuura Takeshirō was a Japanese explorer, cartographer, writer, painter, priest, and antiquarian. During the late Edo period and Bakumatsu he journeyed six times to Ezo, including to Sakhalin and the Kuriles. In the early Meiji period he was an official in the Hokkaidō Development Commission. Instrumental in the naming of the island and many of its places, he is sometimes referred to as the "godparent of Hokkaidō".
Matsuura Takeshirō in 1885, with a necklace of magatama, cylindrical kudatama (ja), and crystal beads, largely of the Yayoi period, and now at Seikadō Bunko Art Museum
From Ezo Manga (1859); through works such as this and his later series of travelogues, Matsuura Takeshirō brought an understanding of Ezo and of the Ainu to a wider readership
View of Hakodate Port from his Diary of the First Voyage to Ezo (1850) (Hakodate City Central Library) (Municipal Tangible Cultural Property)
Inscribed tanka by Matsuura Takeshirō in Shintotsukawa
Hokkaidō Development Commission
The Hokkaidō Development Commission , sometimes referred to as Hokkaidō Colonization Office or simply Kaitakushi, was a government agency in early Meiji Japan. Tasked with the administration, economic development, and securing of the northern frontier in what, at the time of establishment, was known as Ezo, it was established in 1869 and disbanded in 1882.
Hokkaidō Development Commission Sapporo Main Office (replica) at the Historical Village of Hokkaido; the original, dating to 1873, burned in 1879
Satellite image of Hokkaido
