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Hokkaido University (Japan)

Last modified: 2023-06-03 by zachary harden
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Hokkaido University
image by Eugene Ipavec, 20 August 2008


See also:

Overview

University of Hokkaido was founded 1876 as `Sapporo Agricultural College' by Dr W.S. Clark of Massachusetts Agricultural College (US). Taken up in Tohoku Imperial University at Sendai in 1907, reverse move in 1918 when Tohoku Agricultural College is transferred to newly founded Hokkaido Imperial University; adjective "Imperial" dropped in 1947. Being a national establishment, incorporated 2004.
Eighteen faculties or graduate schools plus various institutions. let me mention the Institute of Low Temperature Science and many research centres. About eleven thousand undergraduates and nine thousand graduates, staff more than six thousand.
Sources: Hokkaido University: History page and Wikipedia: Hokkaido University
Jan Mertens, 07 September 2008

The Massachusetts Agricultural College, the parent institution of the University of Hokkaido, was the original name of what is now the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The present name was adopted around the time of World War II (see the UofM website for full details), and was the first actual public institution of higher education in the Bay State. In addition to the Amherst campus, which remains the headquarters of what is now the University of Massachusetts State, there are now additional branches in Boston, Worcester, Dartmouth (New Vedford) and elsewhere.
Ron Lahav, 08 September 2008


The Flag

An ornamental banner, apparently purple, fringed purple, the emblem in white, centred.
Source: http://www.hokudai.ac.jp/bureau/populi/edition22/toku1.html
Jan Mertens, 20 August, 2008

When I did my study of university flags I had finished 2/3 of the Japanese universities before ill health caused me to stop. I don't recall after such a long interval whether the University of Hokkaido had an actual flag, but like you I agree that the example shown would not have been it. Those Japanese universities which do have flags use designs which conform more or less to Western vex traditions. Only about a third of the Japanese universities which I had investigated actually had flags, although all had logos or seals and in some cases both.
The second link definitely shows what looks like the Hokkaido University flag, although I never saw it when I was looking around in Japanese university web sites. It is possible that this flag was added to the web site since last winter. In any event, as I noted, it conforms to Western vex conventions as do most Japanese university flags where they exist. I am sorry that the image was not in color, however.
Ron Lahav, 20 August 2008

I wanted to send & describe the other item for the sake of completeness but when one looks closely it becomes clear this is only a flag-like item, a sort of cloth to hang up.
Jan Mertens, 20 August, 2008

The emblem in the center of the flag of Hokkaido University could I suppose be termed the university monogram, although there is probably an official designation in Japanese for this. If one looks at most Japanese university web sites one will find a similar design of Japanese characters, apparently arranged vertically one above the other. I do not know in which script these letters are written, but as I say simply opening the web site of most Japanese universities will reveal a similar monogram.
Ron Lahav, 20 August 2008