[Photo from welcome.city.sapporo.jp]

A place to learn all about Hokkaido literature, from Ainu literature to children’s literature.

As a result of the enthusiasm of dedicated literary professionals, the Hokkaido Museum of Literature opened in 1995 as Hokkaido’s first literature museum. The museum is located inside Nakajima Park, which also houses other cultural facilities and its collection includes some 260,000 works by and about authors such as Takuboku Ishikawa, Takeo Arishima, Takiji Kobayashi, and Ayako Miura, who are associated with Hokkaido.

The comprehensive collection of Hokkaido literature from the mid 19th Century to the contemporary period includes novels, works of criticism, essays, poetry, tanka, haiku, senryu, children’s literature, and Ainu folklore. The permanent exhibition, which includes approximately 1,300 items, provides an overview of major Hokkaido authors by historical period and allows viewers to grasp the trends of Hokkaido literature at a glance.