The Sakushukotoni River flows north to south through the Sapporo Campus, its surface shimmering with the changing beauty of each season. It is along its banks that we, the Faculty of Humanities and Human Sciences at Hokkaido University, pursue our learning and teaching. The name Sakushukotoni derives from the Ainu language. In the riverbed from behind the University Library to the rear of the School of Humanities and Human Sciences parking lot, archaeological remains of Ainu culture dating to the early Edo period (early 17th century) have been discovered. Before the northern island of Japan was renamed Hokkaido in the early Meiji era, this place was home to the indigenous Ainu people.
It is important to stand in one’s own place and reflect deeply. What history has played out on this land? How might we imagine the many minorities within society? What role do language and literature, and thought and culture, play? And why do people think and act the way they do? These are the kinds of insights that studying at the School/Graduate School of Humanities and Human Sciences at Hokkaido University might open up for you.
The history of the School/Graduate School of Humanities and Human Sciences dates back to 1947, when the School of Law and Letters, comprising the departments of philosophy, history, and literature, was established at Hokkaido Imperial University. In 1950, these three departments came together to form the School of Letters. Then, in 1977, part of the Department of Philosophy was reorganized to create the Department of Behavioral Science, and these four departments would go on to form the backbone of the research and educational programs of the School/Graduate School of Humanities and Human Sciences.
Today, serving as a research organization, the Faculty of Humanities and Human Sciences houses two educational organizations: the School of Humanities and Human Sciences and the Graduate School of Humanities and Human Sciences (for further details, please visit our website). The School has 18 laboratories, approximately 90 faculty members, and around 630 students. At the Graduate School, with the educational participation of the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center (SRC) and the Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies (CAIS), around 390 graduate students pursue their research across 20 laboratories under approximately 110 faculty members. The Administrative Office of Humanities and Human Sciences has approximately 30 staff members who carry out the day-to-day work. An organization like this—one that encompasses academic fields so diverse and rich in both quality and scale—is underpinned by the cutting-edge research of each of its faculty members. In essence, world-class university education is firmly secured here in Hokkaido as one of the humanities-oriented schools/graduate schools within national comprehensive universities.
Incidentally, the account of the land presented at the outset is an example of a Land Acknowledgement (LA)—a statement placed at the beginning of official speeches and welcome messages by universities and other institutions in the so-called New World, such as the Americas and Oceania, whose histories have been shaped by indigenous peoples, as a way of acknowledging and honoring those histories and the indigenous rights. The same is true of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the successor to the Massachusetts Agricultural College, where Dr. William S. Clark served as president, and which has served as one of Hokkaido University’s institutional models since the Meiji era. Here at Hokkaido University, starting in the 2026 academic year, a Land Acknowledgement has been displayed on a signboard near the main gate. This is just one example, but we believe it is equally important to adopt practices that are responsive to the changing times.
Grounded in Hokkaido, we are committed to advancing high-quality research and education that meets international standards. Drawing on the diverse and rich academic fields of the humanities, we aspire to make broad contributions to scholarship, education, and society.
Akihisa TANIMOTO
Dean
Faculty/Graduate School/School of Humanities and Human Sciences
Hokkaido University