Goryōkaku, Star fortress in Hakodate, Japan.
Goryōkaku is a five-pointed star fort in Hakodate, Hokkaidō, built 1857–1866 with earthen ramparts faced in stone and a moat about 1.8 km around. Inside the enclosure stand the reconstructed Hakodate Magistrate's Office (2010) and a surviving 19th-century storehouse; straight paths cross the grounds.
The structure was built in the 1860s as the first Western-style military fortification in Japan. Forces loyal to the Tokugawa shogunate took refuge here in winter 1868–1869 before surrendering to the new Meiji government after a siege lasting several weeks.
The site contains over 1000 cherry trees along its moats, making it a primary location for spring flower viewing in northern Japan.
The park remains open year-round and can be reached on foot in about ten minutes from the tram stop at Goryōkaku Kōen-mae. Visitors can walk along the ramparts that follow the moat perimeter or use staircases to enter the interior grounds of the former fortress.
The moat's water was originally drawn from the Kameda River about a kilometre away through buried conduits, which also supplied the grounds; after postwar riverbank works cut that flow, tap water was piped in from 1974 to curb the smell. The pond was once clean enough to serve as a swimming pool and, in winter, a skating rink.
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