The Michio Hoshino Totem Pole

This totem pole in Sitka remembers Michio Hoshino, a Japanese nature photographer who fell in love with Alaska. Born in nineteen fifty-two, Hoshino spent two decades photographing Alaskan wildlife, especially caribou, whales, and bears, and his images made him famous in Japan. In nineteen ninety-six, while on assignment beside a lake in the Russian Far East, he was killed by a brown bear.

Twelve years later, in two thousand eight, this pole was raised in his honor. A Tlingit carver created it, and its figures recall the wildlife and wild places he spent his life photographing.