A nice, small historical building and museum dedicated to Edwin Dun and his major contribution in Hokkaido. There is no entrance fee. Explanation text in Japanese and English are available.

Good to know the history in Hokkaido thru Edwin Dun. The building is very small but the park is beautiful with cherry blossom.

This is a memorial museum for 에드윈 던, who laid the foundations of dairy farming in the development history of 홋카이도. When you enter, a staff member gives a brief explanation and hands out a pamphlet. There are old photos of 삿포로, along with oil paintings and exhibits about 에드윈 던's achievements. The exhibits have explanations in Japanese and English. Admission is free, and it is nice to visit together with the 에드윈 던 Memorial Park right next door. The joined yew and cherry tree right beside the museum entrance is also impressive.

+3

Visited on a day of heavy snowfall. I walked from 真駒内 Station. Inside, it is like 北海道 itself during the development era. You get a clear understanding of the achievements of エドウィン・ダン, who devoted himself to 北海道. Admission is free, and I recommend it.

+3

This was my first visit, on 2025·R7.10.5. It is east off National Route 453, just before (beside) the 札幌南 Post Office. I had always just driven along National Route 453, and my strong impression that this was an inconvenient place without parking kept me putting off a visit (apparently, using the parking lot at 「南区民センター」 across from the post office is a good idea). I finally made up my mind and stopped by after lunch at the soba shop 「一膳」. This 「エドウィン·ダン記念館」 is a Western-style building with clapboard siding and a hipped roof, built by エドウィン·ダン in 1880·M13 as the Hokkaido Development Commission's “cattle ranch office,” after the cattle ranch (開拓使真駒内牧牛場) opened in 1876·M9. Its features include a gabled entrance and dormer at the center of the front facade and rooms with verandas. After the Development Commission was abolished, it came under the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, and in 1886·M19 it was renamed “真駒内種畜場”. For the 70 years until it was requisitioned by the American military in 1946·S21, 北海道's dairy and livestock industries reportedly developed around this building. In 1964·S39, when demolition was planned to repurpose the site, the “エドウィン·ダン顕彰会,” organized by volunteers, relocated it to its current site (inside エドウィン・ダン記念公園, formerly 真駒内中央公園). Inside are 23 oil paintings by “一木万寿三 (registered family name 萬壽三, a Western-style painter born in 滝川村 and raised in 江部乙村, 1903~1981, whose wife was the haiku poet 榛谷美枝子=はんがいみえこ, who coined the seasonal term ‘リラ冷え’)” depicting Dun's life from his arrival in Japan to his later years. (They took 5 years to paint. With few materials preserved by Dun or his family, the artist accomplished this through sheer determination, using photographs, articles from the time, and detailed interviews with people involved, sometimes traveling all over Japan.) A model of the livestock breeding station and personal objects associated with Dun are also displayed. Later, following renovations to address deterioration, it reopened in May 2003·H15. In recognition of its cultural value, “エドウィン・ダン記念館” was registered as a national Registered Tangible Cultural Property by the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2000·H12. In 2007·H19 it was recognized as a national Heritage of Industrial Modernization by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and that same year it also received the 13th 札幌 City Urban Landscape Award. (Incidentally, the museum's materials give the construction year as 1880·M13, but the Agency for Cultural Affairs' Cultural Heritage Online and the 北海道 Cultural Heritage Database give 1887·M20. I would like to find out why there is this discrepancy.) Admission is happily “free.” Summer opening dates are April 1~October 31 (9:30~16:30), closed Wednesdays. Winter opening dates are November 1~March 31, open only Friday·Saturday·Sunday (9:30~16:30), with closures over the year-end and New Year holidays. Please also see the “エドウィン·ダン像” in the memorial park. (Materials about the origins of the various designs on the bronze statue's pedestal reliefs are also available to read freely~you can sit and read them~. It was nice to learn various things I would never have noticed just by looking at the statue.) English explanations are also displayed, so I think foreign visitors can enjoy it without getting bored too. Incidentally, “エディー·ダン,” played by モーリー·ロバートソン in “ゴールデンカムイ2-北海道刺青囚人争奪編-,” is said to be modeled on this エドウィン·ダン. エドウィン·ダン in the old photographs and モーリー·ロバートソン in the production look quite alike, which made me grin.

+3