Sapporo Ainu Culture Promotion Center

This guide to the Sapporo Ainu Culture Promotion Center traces how Meiji-era colonization policy erased the original Ainu villages, or kotans, that once lined the Toyohira River through Sapporo. It follows why the center, built in 2003, had to reconstruct everything from scratch, with clothing and tools remade by the Sapporo Ainu Association, a hand-carved dugout canoe, and thatched cise houses rebuilt from memory. You'll hear what visitors are invited to touch inside, from woven cloth to century-old tools. Start in the embroidery workshop before circling out to the reconstructed houses.