Ishikari River runs through the floodplain, on the edge of which Sapporo City is situated, and pours into the Ishikari bay which opens into Japan Sea. It is one of the largest rivers in Japan, and is well known for the tremendous wild salmon stocks which made Ishikari a boom town of Hokkaido in the early years of the Meiji Period as did the rich herring fishery. The history of Ishikari River's salmon fishery, however, is a sad tale of the once rich wild salmon stock reduced to near extinction within a time span of quarter of a century due to overfishing and industrialization.

During the 16-year period from the first through the 16th year of Meiji (1868 through 1883), marking the beginning of modern and intensive commercial fishing pressure and before industrialization began polluting the river water, the Ishikari salmon fishery annually produced a commercial catch of over 1,000,000 chum salmon, with a notable record catch of 1,940,000 in 1879. However, under pressure for quick tax revenue gains, the industrializing Meiji Japan placed a continuing emphasis on the development of Hokkaido's fisheries, tending to let extreme overfishing go unchecked.

In this period, the Ishikari salmon fishery was mostly conducted within the inland river waters, and as shown in the picture (taken in those days), large dragnets were used which allowed to trap the entire schools of fish coming in from the sea for spawning. Besides, heavy taxation encouraged illegal fishing which tended to add to the already heavy fishing pressure. The booming fishery brought a large number of seasonal workers to the shores of the river, and in 1879, the small country town of Ishikari looked just like a booming town in America's Wild West with 25 geisha houses were operating featuring some 300 young geishas entertaining the swelling workforce.

In 1877, a salmon cannery, the first ever in Japan, was built in Ishikari and packing salmon for the Tokyo market under the technical supervision of an American engineer. But, the relentless pressure on the wild chum stock reduced the Ishikari salmon run down to a low range between 200,000 and 500,000 during the period from 1880 to 1900, and then, reduced it to the 100,000 range during the following decades, approaching a de facto extinction prior to the establishment of modern hatcheries after World War II.