TRAVEL

Hokkaido springs to life in winter—see it now

In winter, Japan’s northernmost main island Hokkaido is a place of snow-covered forests and white-crested volcanoes mirrored in glacial lakes. It’s also the land of the Ainu, an Indigenous people intimately connected to the environment through their hunting, fishing and storytelling traditions, and animist beliefs.

Admire the mirrored steps of red-crowned cranes dancing in Kushiro’s wintery wetlands during Hokkaido prime season.

Photograph by Lorraine Turci

ByLorraine Turci and Rory Goulding

Photographs byLorraine Turci

December 13, 2025

This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).

A campervan bus buried deep under a layer of powdery snow in a winter forest landscape. — Winter is the season that most defines Hokkaido. The island’s snowfall — up to 50 feet a year in places — has brought it fame with winter sports enthusiasts.
Photograph by Lorraine Turci

A calm sea at the edge of a snow-peaked mountain with a low ice wall framing the view. — But long before that, its Indigenous Ainu people had learnt to survive in this land where ice hides fire — as in the volcanic cone of Mount Eniwa on the shores of Lake Shikotsu. Their deeply rich culture — long silenced by official assimilation policies after Hokkaido was formally incorporated into Japan after 1869 — breathes again in its songs and rituals.
Photograph by Lorraine Turci

A group of indigenous, Japanese women at different ages, as well as a boy, pounding on big barrel drums in front of a sculpted ice wall. — The oral myths, politics, arts and unique language that form Ainu identity were shaped by Hokkaido’s harsh winters, geological forces and ever-present natural riches. Today, visitors can admire the mirrored steps of red-crowned cranes dancing in Kushiro’s wetlands and watch drummers perform in front of giant frozen sculptures at the Sapporo Snow Festival.
Photograph by Lorraine Turci

The wooden facade of a tent-like building with carved totem poles on either side of the entrance and a carved, wooden owl towering above. — According to Ainu animist belief, every element of nature contains a kamuy (spirit or god). One of them is the great owl, a sculpture of which guards the entrance to the Akanko Ainu Theatre Ikor.
Photograph by Lorraine Turci

The moody and dark interiors of a ceremonial room with rows of indigenous Ainu people sitting cross-legged on the floor in traditional clothing. — Part of a cultural centre by the shores of Lake Akan in the sparsely populated east of the island, it’s often used for rituals such as welcoming ceremonies, where rice wine is shared at the fireside and participants renew their bond with the kamuy. The Ainu dress in modern clothing in daily life, but for such occasions they’ll wear garments decorated with traditional motifs. They often take the form of moreu (spirals) and aiushi (thorns), meant to confuse and repel malevolent spirits.
Photograph by Lorraine Turci

An elderly, smiling couple in traditionally embroidered yet casual kimonos, standing in the snowy landscape of a small village. — Kayoko Nishida learned to expertly embroider these patterns when she moved to Lake Akan and married Masao Nishida — the two run a folk craft shop there and are anchors of the community, often leading rituals.
Photograph by Lorraine Turci

A busy crossing in a high-rising city at snowfall with warmly wrapped up locals streaming across the street. — It may not always be apparent amid the high-rises of the island capital Sapporo, home to two million people, but the revival of Ainu culture in Hokkaido takes many shapes.
Photograph by Lorraine Turci

A dynamic concert shot of an eldery man in fedora on stage, playing a traditional, guitar-like harp. — Silenced for decades, the tonkori — an ancestral harp once confined to museums — was brought back to life in the 1980s by internationally known musician Oki Kano, whose Ainu Dub Band blends reggae, Afrobeat and hypnotic groove. It’s seen in manga, too — bestselling Golden Kamuy follows the alliance between a young Ainu woman and a former soldier of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5.
Photograph by Lorraine Turci (Top) (Left) and Photograph by Lorraine Turci (Bottom) (Right)

A traditional tatami floor with multiple manga comics scattered cross it. — Silenced for decades, the tonkori — an ancestral harp once confined to museums — was brought back to life in the 1980s by internationally known musician Oki Kano, whose Ainu Dub Band blends reggae, Afrobeat and hypnotic groove. It’s seen in manga, too — bestselling Golden Kamuy follows the alliance between a young Ainu woman and a former soldier of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5.
Photograph by Lorraine Turci (Top) (Left) and Photograph by Lorraine Turci (Bottom) (Right)

A snowed-in vending machine with a straw roof on the side of a road at late dusk. — In a country known for its vending machines, a thatched roof and typical Ainu patterns mark out the one at Nibutani’s Ainu Culture Museum. And when a non-Ainu such as Yukihiro Shibata wanted to learn the art of weaving attus (tree bark cloth) he first faced refusal, but is now a recognised artisan at the Urespa Crafts Centre in Nibutani.
Photograph by Lorraine Turci (Top) (Left) and Photograph by Lorraine Turci (Bottom) (Right)

A friendly local man kneeling next to a bust mannequin in a matching fabric suit. — In a country known for its vending machines, a thatched roof and typical Ainu patterns mark out the one at Nibutani’s Ainu Culture Museum. And when a non-Ainu such as Yukihiro Shibata wanted to learn the art of weaving attus (tree bark cloth) he first faced refusal, but is now a recognised artisan at the Urespa Crafts Centre in Nibutani.
Photograph by Lorraine Turci (Top) (Left) and Photograph by Lorraine Turci (Bottom) (Right)

An aerial shot of a wide slope running through a powdery, winter forest with plenty of visitors skiing. — Today, skiing at resorts such as Kiroro has become the most common way for visitors to connect with Hokkaido’s nature.
Photograph by Lorraine Turci

An intimate close-up of a majestic deer with a curved antler in a snowy forest. — Today, skiing at resorts such as Kiroro has become the most common way for visitors to connect with Hokkaido’s nature.
Photograph by Lorraine Turci

A heavily clothed figure dynamically throwing feed from a hand wagon in front of three cranes in a snowy landscape. — Red-crowned cranes are no longer found in mainland Japan but are known to the Ainu as the kamuy of the wetlands, where they gather in winter. At a sanctuary in Tsurui, cranes are fed daily in the snowy season, continuing the efforts of local farmer Yoshitaka Ito in the 1960s, who was determined to preserve this traditional Japanese symbol of love and longevity in its Hokkaido refuge.
Photograph by Lorraine Turci

Published in the December 2025 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK).

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