Sapporo Hitsujigaoka Observation Hill

This guide to Hitsujigaoka Observation Hill in Sapporo opens with a puzzle: why a teacher who stayed only eight months in Japan stands in bronze here, arm raised toward the horizon. It follows William Smith Clark, brought by the Kaitakushi in 1876 to found the Sapporo Agricultural College, and the hill's separate history as a government cattle station from 1906, switched to sheep in 1919 before opening as an observation point in 1959. The statue itself was sculpted in 1976, for the hundredth anniversary of his arrival. Stand at its base and follow the line of his raised hand out over the grazing flock toward the plain.