Hakodate foreign settlement

The Ansei Treaties of 1858 decided that Hakodate would be opened (allowed foreigners to do business) along with Osaka, Tokyo, Yokohama, Niigata, Kobe, and Nagasaki.

The main site of foreign settlement in Hakodate was Omachi 大町 (present day Nakahama-cho 仲浜町) constructed in 1860, consisting of about 1730 tsubo (approximately 0.6 hectares) in 1878.

The population of the foreign settlement, at its height, was 72: 35 Chinese, 20 British, 6 French, 4 Russians, 3 Americans, 2 Danes and 2 Germans.

[1] From 1878 to 1879, a large fire devastated the Hakodate urban area, including portions of the foreign settlement as well.

[3] Karl Weidl-Raymon (1894-1987), a Bohemian immigrant that lived in the settlement, founded a sausage company in Hakodate.

Map of the Hakodate in 1891
A view of the Hakodate Foreign Settlement, c. 1880
The Kanemori red brick warehouses, renovations of the original warehouses built within the foreign settlement in 1869