Introduction to Golden Kamuy
Fans of Japanese pop culture and seinen manga, in particular, may have heard of a series that has become more popular in recent months—Golden Kamuy (ゴールデンカムイ).
Set after the Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905) in Hokkaido (北海道), Japan’s northernmost island, Golden Kamuy follows Saichi Sugimoto (杉元佐一), a veteran of the infamous Battle of 203 Hill, on his journey to find a hidden cache of Ainu (アィヌ) gold with Asirpa (アシリパ), a young Ainu girl who saved his life from a bear attack.
The catch is this: the map leading to the gold has been tattooed on 24 different convicts from Abashiri Prison who have since escaped. As Sugimoto and Asirpa journey across Hokkaido in search of these convicts, they quickly run into the 7th Division, the Hokkaido-based arm of the Japanese military—including First Lieutenant Tsurumi Tokushirō (鶴見篤四郎), who wants to use the gold to establish an independent military Hokkaido with his men.
Aside from being an absolute ride from start to finish, this series also introduces Hokkaido, Ainu culture, and the political history of the region in an exciting and engaging way, and has consequently been sort of informally adopted as their prefectural franchise.
I was introduced to this series by my friend Bonnie, who first mentioned it to me while we were out in town in late December 2020. She had described it as a “niche anime” about “the Russo-Japanese war and politics”, and I vaguely remember thinking, cool, but it doesn’t seem like something I’d get into.
Reader, I was an absolute FOOL.
Long story short, 1 episode turned into 2 and then into 36 (plus 4 OVA episodes), and I now love this series to the point where we ended up planning a Golden Kamuy trip—a pilgrimage, you might say—to Hokkaido this summer to visit some of the main plot-relevant locations.
Much of this trip was made possible by Yijia, our wonderful, glowing, super competent Goddess of the Car, who drove up so that we could road trip our way from coast to coast in a week! I’ll be highlighting the story-specific locations that we chose to visit during this trip.
Day 1: Hakodate
We started our trip by meeting up in Hakodate (函館), the southernmost point of Hokkaido—Yijia decided to drive her car up to Aomori (青森) and take the ferry over, so it made more sense for Bonnie and I to meet her there after landing at New Chitose Airport (新千歳空港).
Our first stop once reunited was Goryōkaku Park (五稜郭公園), the star-shaped fort perhaps most famously known in history for its role in the Battle of Hakodate (1868-1869), where the samurai Hijikata Toshizō (土方歳三) was killed in action.
In the manga, Hijikata is revealed to have survived as one of the tattooed convicts, and is one of the key faction leaders in the fight for the gold. If you’re up to date, you will know why we absolutely had to come here! No spoilers here, folks…
We only managed to reach the park about an hour before closing, so we chose to spend more time walking along the upper walls of the fort while bathed in the golden glow of the setting sun.
After circling back to the entrance of the park, we drove down to Hakodate Beer Hall (函館ビヤホール) for dinner, and also made a stop by a local supermarket to pick up several Golden Kamuy X Sapporo Beer collaboration cans.
The next morning, we dragged ourselves up bright and early to stop by the Hakodate Morning Market (函館朝市) for breakfast before setting off for our next destination: Shiraoi!
JR Hakodate Station (函館駅)
Address: 12 Wakamatsu-cho, Hakodate, Hokkaido, 040-0063
Access: Approximately 3.5 hours from New Chitose Airport Station (新千歳空港駅) via the Hakodate Main Line (函館本線), inclusive of a transfer at Minami-Chitose Station (南千歳駅).
Goryōkaku Park (五稜郭公園)
Address: 44-2 Goryokaku-cho, Hakodate, Hokkaido, 040-0001
Access: 13-minute walk from Goryokaku-koen-mae Tram Stop (五稜郭公園前電停)
Hakodate Beer Hall (函館ビヤホール)
Address: Hakodate History Plaza, 14-12 Suehiro-cho, Hakodate, Hokkaido, 040-0053
Access: 5-minute walk from Jujigai Tram Stop (十字街電停), or 20-minute walk from JR Hakodate Station
Mako and Yasube Seafood Restaurant (馬子とやすべ食堂)
Address: Donburi Yokocho, 9-15 Wakamatsu-cho, Hakodate, Hokkaido, 040-0063
Access: 1-minute walk from JR Hakodate Station (函館駅)
Day 2: Shiraoi
Our next stop was Upopoy, the National Ainu Museum (ウポポイ 民族共生象徴空間 Upopoi minzoku kyōsei shōchō kūkan) and Park in Shiraoi (白老), which is located between Sapporo (札幌) and Hakodate. We absolutely had to go see their second Golden Kamuy special exhibition, and boy, did it deliver!
The exhibition space was decorated with lots of cute panels of Yoshitake Shiraishi (白石由竹), our resident Prison Escape King, and even had specially curated character display cases with iconic items and detailed explanations on how they are relevant to the story.
After finishing up in the exhibition hall, we went out to explore the park grounds briefly, and were very pleasantly surprised to see that there were a row of cise (チセ)—traditional thatched-roof Ainu homes—with staff members running experiential activities within. There was also a nice open space with a small stage for free educational talks and traditional performances.
I quite liked how Upopoy was conceptualised as a space for Ainu culture, as opposed to being just a museum or exhibition hall. It reminds you that the Ainu culture—their lifestyle, religion, cuisine, and traditional practices—is a living, breathing entity, and that it is meant to be experienced in real-time instead of only being viewed from behind glass display cases.
Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park (ウポポイ 民族共生象徴空間)
Address: 2-3 Wakakusa-chō, Shiraoi, Shiraoi District, Hokkaido, 059-0902
Access: 11-minute walk from JR Shiraoi Station (白老駅)
Day 3: Sapporo and Otaru
We left Shiraoi and made our way to the Sapporo Beer Museum (サッポロビール博物館 Sapporo Bīru Hakubutsukan), where the Jack the Ripper arc reaches its, ahem, climax in the manga.
The museum introduces the history of Sapporo Brewery from its beginnings as the Kaitakushi Brewery (開拓使麦酒醸造所) in 1876, the development of the very first Sapporo Beer in 1877, and how it eventually evolved into the Sapporo Beer we know and love today in the 21st century. It even has a little scale model of what the factory would have looked like back in the day.
(We had a lot of fun trying to figure out where certain “exciting events” from the manga would have happened in relation to the model…)
The next day, we set off in the late morning for a day trip out to Otaru (小樽), a port town that sets the scene for the early parts of the story. Our goals here were simple: we wanted to stuff our faces with cheesecake (not plot relevant) and herring soba (very plot relevant).
To fulfil our soupy herring noodle dish dreams, we drove to Old Aoyama Villa (旧青山別邸 Kyū Aoyama bettei), the former home to the Aoyama clan, one of three Taisho-era herring industry tycoons. The practice of housing herring fishermen in long communal lodgings known as nishin-goten (にしん御殿) flourished in Hokkaido after the Second World War.
While the fancy villa that we had lunch in would certainly not have been the actual lodging quarters of these fishermen (including a certain character with a glowing crotch), these residences would probably have had at least one of those communal buildings during the height of the herring fishing boom.
Sapporo Beer Museum (サッポロビール博物館)
Address: 9-1-1 Kita 7-jo Higashi, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 065-8633
Access: 8-minute walk from JR Naebo Station (苗穂駅), or 10 minute walk from Higashi-shiyakusho-mae Station (東市役所前駅)
Note: Reservations required in advance for guided tours
Old Aoyama Villa (にしん御殿 小樽貴賓館（旧青山別邸）)
Address: 3-63 Shukutsu, Otaru, Hokkaido, 047-0047
Access: From JR Otaru Station (小樽駅), it is 20-minute bus ride to Shukutsu 3-chome (祝津3丁目) bus stop.
Note: While the villa in principle does not charge admission fees to enter the restaurant, visitors in early July will need to pay an extra ¥200 to enter the grounds due to hydrangea season.
Day 4 & 5: Asahikawa
After a short rest in Sapporo, we made the drive up to Asahikawa (旭川) in central Hokkaido, where we based ourselves for the next few days.
Asahikawa City Museum (旭川市博物館 Asahikawa-shi hakubutsukan) was such a good stop: although none of the exhibits were explicitly Golden Kamuy-themed, we got to see life-sized replicas of what the inside of a traditional Ainu house would have looked like.
My favourite display was this huge floor to ceiling case containing examples of traditional dress, accessories, and tools from various indigenous tribes from all over Sakhalin. They’re plot-relevant too—midway through the story, Kiroranke (キロランケ), himself a Tatar Ainu who had relocated to Hokkaido, introduces Asirpa to the diverse cultures of the Karafuto Ainu, Uilta, and Nivikh. Being able to see what had been depicted in the manga and anime with our own eyes was quite awe-inspiring!
We then took a bus to the Hokuchin Memorial Museum (北鎮記念館 Hokuchin-kinenkan), a small building dedicated to preserving the history of the Imperial Japanese Army’s 7th Division (第七師団), a branch of the Japanese military that had been stationed in Hokkaido from 1896 to 1945. This 7th Division is distinct from the modern 7th Division, which is instead called dai-nana-shidan, and is part of the Japan Special Ground Defense Forces (JSGDF). This location is particularly important to Golden Kamuy due to its ties with First Lieutenant Tsurumi, one of the major players in the race for the gold.
As a museum run by the JSGDF, you can definitely sense how they wanted to portray the narrative around the Imperial 7th Division’s activities during their time in Hokkaido in a certain way. It was, put lightly, quite jarring to see exhibits celebrating the army’s large-scale development of Asahikawa’s once-lush natural landscape right after we had come from the indigenous culture-centric exhibition at the city museum.
But memes aside, I do think that this disjunct is part of why Golden Kamuy is so appealing as a story—beyond its adult jokes and regular muscle-man sauna scenes, it grapples unflinchingly with the rich, complex, but difficult history of how these groups came to be in Hokkaido, and how they may have impacted each other.
Asahikawa City Museum (旭川市博物館)
Address: 7-1 Kagura 3-jo, Asahikawa, Hokkaido 070-8003
Access: 15-minute walk, or 10-minute bus ride from JR Asahikawa Station (旭川駅)
Hokuchin Memorial Museum (北鎮記念館)
Address: Shunkō-chō, Asahikawa, Hokkaido, 070-0902 (Next to the Japan Special Ground Defense Forces (JSGDF) Camp Asahikawa)
Access: From JR Asahikawa Station (旭川駅), it is 15-minute bus ride to Gokoku Shrine (護国神社) bus stop.
Day 6: Abashiri
We of course could not plan this trip without making time for a day trip to Abashiri (網走), located on the east coast of Hokkaido, to visit the Abashiri Prison Museum (博物館 網走監獄 Hakubutsukan Abashiri Kangoku)!
Aside from playing host to a major sequence of events in the manga, this location is well-remembered in Japanese pop culture having once been home to Yoshie Shiratori (白鳥由栄), the only person who ever successfully broke out of Abashiri Prison, and whose life served as inspiration for Golden Kamuy’s own escape king, Shiraishi.
The museum complex is huge, littered with mannequins dressed up as prisoners and wardens in order to replicate what living conditions would have been like back in the day. You can even try prison food—kangoku-meshi (監獄飯)—in the building where the prisoners themselves would have eaten at the time.
After finishing up at the prison, we hopped into the car for a quick drive up to Mount Tento (天都山 Tentozan), which is home to an observatory and, to my absolute delight, a small drift ice museum!
We wanted to come here because Team Kiroranke and Team Sugimoto both cross a big patch of drift ice in Season 3 of the anime; there is also a hilarious chapter in which Shiraishi tries (and fails) to eat a sea angel (クリオネ kurione) while out on the ice. Abashiri, being located next to the Sea of Okhotsk (オホーツク海 Ohōtsuku-kai), experiences a huge volume of drift ice (流氷 ryūhyō) in winter—although the ice does form in Northern Hokkaido as well, it is actually thickest here.
The Okhotsk Drift Ice Museum (オホーツク流氷館) has a -15°C drift ice room, in which you are provided a damp towel and told to spin it 30 times so that it can freeze solid. I am pleased to inform you that (1) the room was exactly as cold as advertised, and (2) the towel did actually freeze into a solid plank! I can’t imagine how cold it must’ve been for Asirpa and the gang…
Abashiri Prison Museum (網走監獄博物館)
Address: 1-1 Yobito, Abashiri, Hokkaido, 099-2421
Access: 10-minute bus ride from JR Abashiri Station (網走駅)to Abashiri Prison Museum bus stop
Okhotsk Drift Ice Museum (オホーツク流氷館)
Address: 244-3 Tentozan, Abashiri, Hokkaido, 093-0044
Access: 15-minute bus ride from JR Abashiri Station (網走駅) to Tentozan (天都山) bus stop
Day 7: Noboribetsu
Our final stop on the trip was back down in Noboribetsu (登別), famous for its abundant hot springs. Manga readers may recall a certain chapter featuring members of the 7th Division in this very onsen (温泉) town!
We booked a one-night stay at Noboribetsu Manseikaku (登別万世閣), a hot spring hotel with its own sulfur onsen, as well as an incredible lunch and dinner buffet. We didn’t know until we got there, but they make it a point to offer indigenous dishes as well!! So we managed to try Ainu dishes like ohaw (オハウ), a light, traditional fish-based soup with yuk (ユク venison) meatballs, as well as ciporo-imo (チポロイモ), a type of potato salad mixed with salmon roe, alongside regular Japanese dishes. They were all delicious and well worth the food coma at the end of the night!
Noboribetsu Manseikaku (登別万世閣)
Address: 21 Noboribetsuonsen-chō, Noboribetsu, Hokkaido, 059-0551
Access: 20-minute bus ride from JR Noboribetsu Station (登別駅) to Noboribetsu Onsen Terminal (登別温泉ターミナル)
Final thoughts
And that brings us to the end of our Golden Kamuy summer adventure! Honestly speaking, it’s kind of unbelievable how we managed to cram all of this and more into 7 days of travel—Hokkaido is a huge area, and there is absolutely more to see beyond what I covered here. (We actually took a couple days out of our trip to be respectable tourists at the stunning flower fields in Furano and Biei!)
While chatting with Bonnie about writing this article, we talked briefly about this Ainu proverb, which is printed on the inner cover of every volume of the manga:
天から役目なしに降ろされた物はひとつもない
(ten kara yakume nashi ni orosareta mono wa hitotsu mo nai)
Kanto oro wa yaku sak no a=ranke p sinep ka isam
There is nothing on this earth that has been sent down without a purpose.
I’d like to think that this trip, which was so rich in both overexcited fangirling as well as moments of learning and reflection, is also one of these very things—sent down from the heavens with purpose.
Header image credit: Hui Lin
