October 15, 2025
I drove and walked around parts of Prince Rupert during my full day in town. According to a brochure I picked up at the Visitor Center there were quite a few murals scattered about and I wanted to find as many of them as I could.
Before embarking on that venture I went to the Mariners Memorial, which I had passed on my way into town yesterday. In addition to the usual plaques and tributes I found this rather interesting display.
That small fishing boat is the Kazu Maru. It belonged to Kazukio Sakamoto of Owase, Japan who set out on it for a day of fishing on September 25, 1985. Sadly, he never returned home. The boat was found a year and a half later off the coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands, just off the coast of British Columbia. That group of islands has since been renamed Haida Gwaii.
The remains of the boat were taken to Prince Rupert since it was the closest town on the “mainland,” and the people here set about finding out who it belonged to and where it came from. They traced it to Japan, and in an incredible stroke of irony, Owase is the “Sister City” to Prince Rupert! The people of Prince Rupert restored the boat and invited the Mr. Sakamoto’s widow and family to come to Canada for the unveiling.
Here are the murals I found. Some were quite large:
I saw this ship, much larger than the ones in the marina, north of town.
I found these colorful ukuleles in a store window downtown.
And I went to a place called the Sunken Gardens, behind a government building.
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