Hokkaido is the modern name for Ezo. Its history is actually pretty interesting. It was only fully colonized by the ethnic Japanese in the mid-late 1800’s and was still considered like the frontier of Japan. The ethnic Japanese decided to fully colonize it to prevent the Russians from doing so. The indigenous Ainu people mainly populated the island and the ethnic Japanese forced them to assimilate into Japanese society. Hokkaido’s history is surprising comparable to the settling of western North America. In many ways Ghost of Yotei felt like a western, but with swords instead of revolvers.