The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 7 | Issue 42 | Number 1 | Article ID 3236 | Oct 19, 2009

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Mounting Modernization: Itakura Katsunobu, the HokkaidoUniversity Alpine Club and Mountaineering in Pre-WarHokkaido

David A. Fedman

Mounting Modernization: ItakuraKatsunobu, the Hokkaido UniversityAlpine Club and Mountaineering inPre-War Hokkaido

近代化を登るーー板倉勝宣、北海道大学アルペンクラブ、戦前の北海道における登山

David A. Fedman

Writing in 1919, shortly after his first solowinter ascent of Yarigatake (3180 meters), thethen 24 year-old alpinist Itakura Katsunobuwaxed poetic on the Japan Alps:

At the seat of heavenwhere peaks and valleys come intoviewI climb in a sea of whitenessto see inside myself.[1]

To be sure, Itakura’s solo winter ascent markeda significant step in the advancement ofalpinism: the popularization and refinement ofwinter season mountaineering. For decades,Yarigatake had been considered “themountaineers’ mountain,” a test piece for anyaspiring alpinist. Kojima Usui’s successfulclimb in 1902 marked “the dawn of modernmountaineering,” despite evidence that others,including the Buddhist monk Banryū, had beathim to the summit decades earlier. In 1907,alpine luminary Kojima Usui and a team ofclimbers from the Nihon Sangaku Kai (AlpineClub of Japan) were the first to summit inwinter conditions. And then came Itakura: a

solo climber on a winter peak, as Japanesealpinists submitted to the unrelenting call tonew extremes.[2]

Two climbers approaching the cornicedsummit of Yarigatake. Image courtesy of the

AACH, Sangakukan, Sapporo, Hokkaido.

Like many adventurous young men in the1910s, Itakura joined the ranks of a cadre ofambitious mountaineers putting up winter firstascents in the Alps. In contrast to theirpredecessors, this generation of climbers wassingularly focused on Japan’s virgin peaks,pulling out all stops to be the first to summitthem—in season or out. By the 1920s, alpinism(arupinizumu), and its attendant philosophy,had drastically transformed: the previousgeneration of alpine enthusiasts andrecreational climbers gave way to a youngerbreed of versatile (katsudōteki), competitive(kyōgiteki), and radicalized (kagekiteki)climbers.

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Throughout the latter half of the nineteenthcentury the locus of Japanese alpinism was thevertiginous Shinano highlands, a toweringspine of peaks cutting through central Honshu.As Japan’s most prominent mountain range anda beacon for foreign climbers, the Japan Alpsdrew the nation’s top climbers to Honshu. Itcomes as no surprise, then, that the Japan Alpshave long had a commanding influence overscholarship on mountaineering in Japan. Acursory survey of Japanese mountaineeringliterature reveals the centrality of the Alps tothe development of the sport throughout thepre-war period. This study, however, contendsthat beginning in the late 1920s, the nexus ofcutting-edge mountaineering shifted toHokkaido’s remote backcountry ridges, asJapanese climbers began to experiment withand refine expeditionary climbing in places likethe Daisetsuzan and Hidaka ranges.[3]

This myopic focus on the Japan Alps hasundoubtedly obscured Itakura Katsunobu’spioneering legacy in Hokkaido. After enrollingin the geography department of HokkaidoUniversity in 1919, Itakura set off on a littleknown winter mountaineering campaign totake on, in his own words, “Hokkaido’sunconquered snow peaks.” By year’s endItakura had mobilized a skilled team ofclimbers and successfully ascended winterpeaks in some of Japan’s most extremeconditions. In this way, Hokkaido found a newambassador for winter season alpinism inItakura; and Itakura found a new vessel foralpinism in the Academic Alpine Club ofHokkaido (AACH).[4]

Alpinists like Itakura and his contemporaries atthe AACH provide critical insight into thecultural milieu of pre-war Hokkaido. Theirexposure to what Brett Walker aptly calls “thescientific station” of Hokkaido placed them inthe confluence of the prevailing currents ofscience and technology that set their roots inHokkaido and, in turn, cast the mold formodern Japan. As Kären Wigen has shown with

the Japan Alps, mountaineering in the latenineteenth century became a means to modern“enlightenment”—propagated by the powerfulmemes of science, literature, imagination, andabove all else, modernity.[5] In Meiji era Japan(1868-1912), this march to modernity wasfueled by a breakneck campaign of “civilizationand enlightenment,” and, by the late nineteenthcentury, mountaineering provided a means toboth—at least south of Hokkaido. It was notuntil decades later that alpine enthusiasts tookto Hokkaido’s peaks to begin a process ofscientific modernization that left an indelibleimprint on Japan’s mountaineering history andHokkaido’s cultural terrain.

Using the story of the Academic Alpine Club ofHokkaido (AACH), this paper explores themountains and those who scaled them as a lensinto Hokkaido’s mountaineering culture and itsevolving relationship with the rest of Japan.Notably, the AACH was the firstmountaineering club of its kind in Hokkaido,and as such it merits further study as both apioneering institution and a representativeslice of mountaineering culture in thisperiod.[6] Furthermore, as the only officialrecord keeper of mountaineering in this period,the AACH archive—a veritable museum of earlymountaineering—provides a rare glimpse intothe academic rigor, the scientificexperimentation, and the search for adventurethat defined Hokkaido’s frontier. And yet,despite the AACH’s central role in theorigination of alpinism in Hokkaido, its vastresources have not been presented in anymajor treatment on mountaineering history, inEnglish or Japanese.

Long before first ascents were put up acrossthe island, indigenous Ainu populations,Japanese explorers, and government membersof the Kaitakushi (Hokkaido DevelopmentAgency) trekked through the highlands ofHokkaido—each with different motivations andaims. In the 1920s, however, Hokkaido’s alpinelandscape began to change: pitons were

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hammered, ropeways went up, and passes wereabandoned for peaks. As Kären Wigen hasobserved, “turn-of-the century alpineenthusiasts celebrated the fact that climbingmountains was modern…to the point ofdisowning its indigenous, pre-modern roots.”[7]Alpinists in Hokkaido were no different, buttheir story comes much later. Before weaddress it, however, we must first understandthe role of Hokkaido’s mountains before theywere climbed for sport—the subject to whichwe now turn.

The Place of Mountains in Meiji EraHokkaido

Most Japanese treatments of mountaineeringhistory date the advent of modern alpinism tothe arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry andhis black ships—that is, as concomitant withthe opening of Japan to the western world.[8]In its earliest stages, mountaineering in Japanwas advanced greatly by the efforts of “hiredforeigners” (yatoi gaikokujin). These earlyclimbers were limited to Mt. Fuji and itssurrounding peaks—those easily accessed fromTokyo and its outskirts. It was not until theefforts of the Englishman William Gowland(1842-1922) and the subsequent arrival ofmissionary-cum-mountaineer Walter Weston(1860-1940) in 1888 that the locus ofmountaineering shifted to the Alps.

In the following decades, mountaineeringactivity on Honshu increased considerably.Regular trail systems, publications, andguidebooks skyrocketed to popularity aroundthe turn of the twentieth century and climbingvocabulary such as alpinist (arupinisuto) andmountaineer (gakujin is one of many variations)made its way into the popular vernacular. InHokkaido, however, the onset of summit-oriented mountaineering—as opposed to foraysinto the mountains for practical endeavors suchas hunting, foraging, or surveying—did notcome until the late 1910s, an indication of boththe difficulty of Hokkaido’s still inaccessible

alpine terrain and, perhaps more importantly,of its place outside of the cultural sphere ofTokyo and the influence of the “small cadre ofcosmopolitan climbers” identified as thecatalysts of Meiji mountaineering.[9] In otherwords, prior to the arrival of Itakura,Hokkaido’s peaks remained on the periphery ofthe Japanese alpine imagination, despite thegovernment’s comprehensive effort to hem theisland into the cultural fabric of modernJapan.[10]

Central to this comprehensive effort wasmapmaking. While the Japan Alps wereenjoying what historian Shigeo Yasukawa hascalled “mountaineering fever” (tozan netsu)around the turn of the century, Hokkaido wasin the midst of its “age of exploration” (tankenno jidai).[11] Prior to the 1870s, mountains inmost parts of Hokkaido were terraincognita—both uncharted and unclimbed. AsBrett Walker has shown, throughout thecentury preceding the Meiji era, Hokkaido sawa major influx in Japanese cartographers,explorers, and frontier communities. “By1778,” writes Walker, “the Bakufu [centralgovernment], in an effort to compete withencroaching Russian interests in Hokkaido andthroughout the northern territories, arrangedfor an exploration of the territories.”[12] Thisand other early forays into the northernterritories were, however, principally focusedon mapping the coastline of Ezo (present-dayHokkaido) as a means to stake national claimsover sovereignty in the universalizing languageof scientific maps. As a result of this vigorouscampaign to map Hokkaido’s coastline, alpineareas—and indeed much of the interior of theisland—were left as blank swatches of land. Itwas not until the establishment of theKaitakushi (Hokkaido Development Agency) in1870 that a concerted effort to map Hokkaido’sinland territories was initiated. Spurred on inpart by the growing necessity for reliabletopographic maps, development agents shiftedtheir sights to Hokkaido’s inner regions,looking for viable routes for infrastructure,

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commerce, and natural resource reserves.[13]

A map of Hokkaido. Note the unmappedinterior of the island. Courtesy of Hokkaido

University, Northern Studies Collection,Sapporo, Hokkaido

Naturally, the mapping of Hokkaido’s alpineterrain was a precursor to and catalyst formountaineering activity. Indeed, as KärenWigen has observed “in the late 1800s,mountaineering was part and parcel of moderngeography.”[14] In Japan, as in many parts ofEurope, geography provided an importantprofessional raison d’être for Meijimountaineers who in turn honed technicalclimbing skills and disseminated alpineknowledge to the rest of the Japanesepopulation now eyeing the once inaccessiblemountaintops.[15] Unsurprisingly, geographer-cum-climber figures, both foreign andJapanese, hold a commanding influence overthe earliest stages of Japanese mountaineeringhistory.[16] In 1874, Benjamin Smith Lyman(1835-1920), an American mining engineer andKaitakushi surveyor, “explored the toweringTaisetsuzan range while seeking the source ofthe Ishikari River.”[17] His expedition journalincludes notes on geography, topography,

natural sciences, and access to the range’stowering mountain peaks—information thatwould later be used by mountaineers, includingthose at the AACH.[18] Unlike mountaineers onHonshu, however, Kaitakushi agents werelooking for mountain passes for roadways andrailroad tracks, not the challenge of reachingthe summit. This stands in marked contrast tothe Alps, where many climbers were beginningto orient their climbing to the summit as part ofthe race to be the first to bag virgin peaks.

The development of cartographic knowledgeand the establishment of an island-wideinfrastructure engendered new perceptions ofHokkaido’s alpine territories. Traditionalreverence for the peaks, long espoused by thediminishing populations of indigenous Ainu,were displaced by a regime of knowledge basedin science and development that came as partand parcel of the imperial project. Hokkaido’speaks no longer represented lush ecosystemsabounding with animal and plant deities(kamuy, in Ainu) that were to be protected andrevered.[19] Rather, by the turn of the century,they had been appropriated into an imperialagenda that championed the strategicimportance of resource harvesting and theefficacy of scientific progress. Trails began tohoneycomb the major peaks, surveying stationsand mountain outposts were constructed deepin Hokkaido’s mountain ranges, and scientistsand surveyors quickly made their mark on thecountryside. While Ainu guides werefrequently employed to navigate the remotealpine terrain, their command over the alpineenvironments of Hokkaido was quicklytransferred to the frontier explorers andbrought to bear in the strategic effort tomodernize the island.

The delayed onset of mountaineering inHokkaido comes as no surprise when oneconsiders two other realities that set itshighlands apart from other Japanese regions atthe time: the long approach and the severewinter conditions. Whereas the Alps had been

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made accessible through a vast network oftrains, logging roads, and well-markedmountain trails, in Hokkaido a basicinfrastructure, to say nothing of alpine trails,was barely in place well into the twentiethcentury.[20] As a result, many of Hokkaido’smountainous regions were left inaccessible tothose who wanted to climb them. Moreover,approaches in Hokkaido made its peaksextremely taxing, requiring intense planning,enormous amounts of supplies, and largeexpedition-style climbing teams. The AACH wasthe first group that put together anorganization that was up to this test, placing itsmembers on the cutting edge of their craft.Expedition-style climbing, a precursor to thesiege tactics that would characterize the nextstep in the evolution of Japanesemountaineering techniques, was born inHokkaido, nurtured and refined by Itakura andhis cohorts at the AACH.

Itakura Katsunobu and the Gospel of‘Dynamic Mountaineering’

Itakura’s upbringing is worth brief mention, inpart because it is similar to that of many otheralpinists of his day. Born in Toyama Prefectureon December 12, 1897, Itakura spent hischildhood near the base of Tsurugidake—one ofthe Alps’ most awe-inspiring peaks. As ateenager, he relished mountain literature,absorbing Shiga Shigetaka’s classic Nihonfūkeiron and the many mountaineeringpublications of the thriving Nihon Sangaku Kai(Alpine Club of Japan). At the age of fifteen,Itakura joined a local mountaineering club,where he first climbed with the Austrianmountaineer Leopold Winkler. After twosummers roped up with Winkler in the Alps,Itakura had developed a versatile set ofmountaineering skills and had firmlyestablished himself as one of Japan’strailblazing alpinists. To his elation, Itakurawas invited to join the Nihon Sangaku Kai in1917.[21]

Soon after his sensational solo ascent ofYarigatake in the Northern Alps in 1919,Itakura began a radical campaign of solo winterseason climbing. This solo campaign—that is,climbing without a rope partner or supportteam—was the next step in the race for firstwinter ascents in the Alps. While otherclimbers where vying for alternative routes andvariations to the already “conquered” Alps,Itakura decided to up the ante and go it alone.

By early 1919, Itakura had made a reputationfor himself as a fearless, if not reckless,climber, and was featured in numerousmountaineering journals, includingSangaku—the very magazine that had fed hisalpine appetite as a young boy. Itakura’s 1919winter campaign in the Alps is credited withthe creation of a new mountaineering style:dynamic mountaineering, or what IkedaTsunemichi has described as “a powerful mix ofrock climbing, snow climbing, and skiing ratherthan walking up slopes.”[22] The advent ofdynamic mountaineering marked not only thetransition to winter season mountaineering, butalso the incorporation of various climbing toolsincluding the multi-loop harness, a crudeprototype of the ice screw, and mountaineeringboots capable of interchanging between skisand crampons.

In a period of burgeoning consumer cultureand a growing literate population in many partsof Japan, mountaineering publications servedas an expeditious means for spreading thealpine gospel. While most alpinists of the 1920shelped to popularize mountaineering throughthe written word, Itakura displayed littleliterary ambition, though he did maintainpersonal climbing diaries. Instead, he initiatedan ambitious campaign of hands-on instruction:holding workshops and clinics onmountaineering techniques throughoutHonshu, and taking young and inexperiencedclimbers into the highlands, much like he didwith the AACH.[23] If twenty years earlierJapan had found “a veritable mountaineering

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missionary” in Kojima Usui and his writings, bythe 1920s Itakura had become the spokesman(or more precisely, stuntman) for the newgeneration of more radical winter climbers.[24]

Itakura Katsunobu in 1922. Courtesy of theAACH, Sangakukan, Hokkaido University,

Sapporo.

In 1919, Itakura moved to Sapporo to begin hisstudies at Hokkaido University, an institutionwith a close connection to the Kaitakushi and along history of alpine studies—includingJapan’s premier geography department. It didnot take long for Itakura to light upon like-minded alpine enthusiasts. In 1920, he joinedwhat was then the Hokkaido University SkiClub, where he met a core group of climbers.Within two years, with the help of his friendMaki “Yūkō” Aritsune (who was supplyingmountaineering equipment including sets ofcrampons, axes, and ropes fromSwitzerland),[25] Itakura and other moreadventurous comrades from the Ski Club hadabandoned the ski slopes for winter snowpeaks. Before they could climb, however, theyneeded a crash course in wintermountaineering—something only Itakura coulddeliver.[26]

Contemporary sources reveal that the clubstarted with the basics. Records from 1921indicate that the Hokkaido University Ski Clubheld its very first workshop on basic

mountaineering skills, trading in their skis forcrampons and poles for axes. Itakura,described in these documents as the club’s“senkusha” (pioneer), served as the headinstructor, creating a strict training regimenthat included summer rock climbing, winterskiing, conditioning, and basic skills trainingsuch as map reading and survival skills. Thisregimen continued throughout the next threeyears until Itakura’s graduation—and likelypersisted thereafter.[27]

Itakura and the founding members of theHokkaido University Alpine Club on

Asahidake. Image courtesy of the AACH,Sangakukan, Sapporo, Hokkaido.

In January 1922, the club attempted the firstwinter climb of Asahidake (2216 meters),summiting four members from theYokomanbetsu ridge to the southwest. Laterthat same winter, a team of six climbers, led byItakura, summited Kurodake (1984 m) afterspending three days pinned down in awhiteout. This slew of audacious yet successfulclimbs ushered in an era of winter expedition-style alpinism that can only be described as atour de force: during the two decades to followthe club tallied over 100 first winter seasonascents as the premier—and virtuallysole—institution mounting winter climbs inHokkaido.

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A graphical representation of the AACH’sclimbing activites, 1903-1945. Based ondata compiled by Nakamura Haruhiko in

the “Hokudai sangaku yama no kai,hachijyū shūnen nenpyō,” Academic Alpine

Club of Hokkaido.

Itakura, of course, was not one to rest on hislaurels. During the season when Hokkaido’ssnow melted off, Itakura returned to the Alps,where he spent his summer vacationspioneering the sport of rock climbing—ropingup with the likes of Maki Aritsune to put upalpine classic routes throughout the NorthernAlps. Both Itakura and Maki were involved inthe establishment of the Rock Climbing Club(RCC) of Japan. The RCC, like the NihonSangaku Kai, firmly established itself as thepremier training ground for technical rockclimbing, and, by 1926, had launched agroundbreaking series of expeditions toEurope.[28]

As is too often the case with ambitiousalpinists, Itakura’s life was tragically cut short.On January 12, 1924, while on a trip toTateyama with some of his fellow HokkaidoUniversity climbers, Itakura and two otherswere separated from their party in a suddenstorm. After a two-day struggle to locateItakura in what one member recounted as “atempest,” the party reluctantly departed from

the hut in which they had taken refuge, leavingItakura and his companions to die of exposuresomewhere below the ridgeline.[29] He was 27.He is enshrined in Toyama near the base ofTateyama, where alpinists continue to pay theirrespects to the lesser-known founding father ofthe sport.[30]

A picture of AACH “Old Boys” visitingItakura’s monument at Ashikuraji in

Toyama Prefecture. Image courtesy of theAACH, Sangakukan, Sapporo, Japan.

Although Itakura did take extensive notes onhis expeditions, his lack of interest inpublication suggests that he was climbingprincipally for the challenge and thrill of theascent—a trait that sets him apart fromprevious generations of recreational climbers,or what Wigen brands as “armchairalpinists.”[31] A cursory glance at Itakura’swritings shows that he was, above all else,attempting to push the limits of human resolve,a point that he expresses time and again in hisposthumously published memoirs, Yama to yukino nikki (A Diary of the Mountains and Snow).Void of scientific analysis, technical details, orArcadian sentimentality, Itakura’s writings canperhaps best be described as those of a bonefide mountain realist. He writes:

Humans come face to face with

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their limits in the mountains, andto achieve what was once thoughtimpossible is the true thrill of thehills. Risk and sacrifice is the wayof life at altitude…We climb notjust because it is fun, but to testthe limits of the human will.[32]

In retrospect, this passage, written within ayear of his death, portends the untimely fate ofa man living, quite literally, on the precipice.

Alpinism Starts its Climb

In the fall of 1926, nearly two years afterItakura’s death, his climbing partners inHokkaido formally broke from the Hokkaido SkiClub to form the Hokudai sangakubu (HokkaidoUniversity Alpine Club)—the same institutionthat exists today. The club that initially beganwith seven members had by 1928 swelled tosixteen members. By 1935, it had 33 members(all male) within its ranks and by 1937 itreached its zenith at 39.[33] As a result, theclub’s expeditions grew more frequent andincluded larger numbers of climbers. Theselarge teams (sometimes of up to 14 climbers)were integral to the refinement of the AACH’sinnovative expedition-style siege tactics.Naturally, the AACH also grew more ambitious,utilizing its growing ranks to put up impressivefirst ascents in the Daisetsuzan Range incentral Hokkaido.

A panoramic shot of the Daisetsuzan rangetaken from the summit of Tokachidake.

By the late 1920s, it seems that the popularmountaineering culture emanating from theAlps had at last reached Hokkaido’s shores. Afew pivotal developments in this period—someconfined to Hokkaido and others feltnationwide—help to explain this phenomenon.

The most easily identifiable is advancements inprint and broadcast media. Due in large part tothe efforts of scores of climbing advocatesextolling alpine virtues through the enhancedmedia of radio and print, alpinism had reachednew heights in the realm of popular culture.Mountains and mountaineers were featured innumerous magazines, now distributednationwide. Major publications including Yamato keikoku (Mountain and Valley, founded1930) and Gakujin (Alpinist, founded 1935) sawa significant and steady expansion of theirreadership.[34] These widely circulatedpublications offered advice on climbingtechniques, equipment, guide services, andalpine photography (another burgeoningfield).[35] Radio programs included interviewswith mountaineers and exhilarating reports onthe progress of Japanese mountaineering feats,including the sensational ascent of the Eigerfrom the Mittellegi Ridge by Maki Aritsune in1921. Films including a dramatic re-enactmentof Maki’s ascent as well as more lightheartedshorts like Yama no naka (Inside theMountains) were available in theaters in Tokyoand other urban areas.

Another critical force driving the popularizationof mountaineering in this period was the NihonSangaku Kai (Japan Alpine Club, JAChereafter), founded in the fall of 1905 byKojima Usui and other alpine enthusiasts.[36]The JAC actively recruited alpineenthusiasts—using a charter that establishedlax rules for eligibility—and became an efficientfundraising machine. Importantly, the JACoversaw—and funded—the creation ofmountaineering clubs throughout Honshu,concentrating initially on Japan’s elite nationaluniversities. The JAC sponsored expeditionsabroad and hosted climbers from across theglobe to experience the Japan Alps, outfittingthem with equipment and connecting them withguides.[37] Additionally, the JAC establishedand expanded Japan’s premier mountaineeringliterature publishing house.[38]

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As Andrew Bernstein has shown, anotherimportant development was that mountains(and the act of climbing them) had become apowerful symbol of the Japanese nation-state,and of the modernity that lay at its foundation.Detached from their previous religioussignificance, mountains—especially Mt.Fuji—became central to the imperial project,both as a laboratory for scientificexperimentation and as a playground forrecreation.[39] Mountains in this period werethus wedded to a modern regime of knowledge(derived from the newly flourishing disciplinesof geology, meteorology, physiology, andothers), which brought their resources into thenational effort to understand and, in turn,triumph over the natural world.[40] What ismore, mountain climbing was appropriated intothe discourse on exercise and the body,providing a new means for creating a healthy,hardy citizenry. Importantly, these nationalisticforces, and the practical politicalconsiderations at their core, did much to weaveHokkaido’s local spaces into the cultural fabricof the rest of Japan.[41] The “northernfrontier,” a territory that just forty years earlierhad lain at the fringes of the Japanese nation-state, was now repositioned within theboundaries of Japan’s geographicalimagination—scientifically, politically andculturally.

In Hokkaido, growing access to the island’sbackcountry was another force behind themountaineering boom of the 1930s. AsKaitakushi officials indefatigably pursued thedevelopment of the island, the northernfrontier—including its remotest peaks—wasopened by a series of roads, tracks, andtrails.[42] It was not long before smallmountain huts, used and maintained by miningcommunities, were built far up in themountains in places near Asahidake andFuranodake. These mining communities servedas important links between Hokkaido’shighlands and the teams of explorers,surveyors, and eventually mountaineers who

were then pursuing distant peaks andpasses.[43]

Perhaps the greatest legacy of the frontierdevelopment of Hokkaido, however, was thepromotion of science and its inextricable link toprogress, as was almost religiously espoused bythe Kaitakushi. “Drawing on the U.S.experience,” writes Brett Walker, “Hokkaido’sworking lands became nothing less thanlaboratories—literally, experimentstations—where the Kaitakushi…tested newlyimported agriculture technologies.”[44] Themountains, too, were experiment stations, for itwas in the highlands that Kaitakushi officialsdeployed new mapping and mining techniquesand refined the sciences of geography,mineralogy, and surveying that were a centralpart of their mission. Revealingly, theKaitakushi had for years been headquartered atthe Sapporo Agricultural College founded in1876 (which became Hokkaido ImperialUniversity in 1918). As such, it did not takelong for the AACH to anchor its mountaineeringtechniques to this faith in science, as it wasquickly applied to the climbing techniques andtechnologies implemented by the AACH in theyears to come.

In any case, by the early 1930s Hokkaido wasbeginning to be recognized as a new frontier ofclimbing—a training ground for a form ofmountaineering new to Japan. The advent ofexpedition-style climbing—that is, siege-styleclimbing based on the laborious installation ofmultiple base camps and caches (as opposed toa swift approach completed in one fellswoop)—marked a new chapter in Japan’smountaineering history, and an importantreorientation of the efforts and energies ofJapanese mountaineers towards Hokkaido.

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A group shot of the Hokudai Sangakubu.Image courtesy of the AACH, Sangakukan,

Hokkaido University, Sapporo.

The Battle for Petegaridake

By the late 1930s, the AACH had completedwinter first ascents of nearly every major peakin Hokkaido. Thus, beginning in 1937, theAACH initiated what Ikeda Tsunemichi hasdescribed as the “race to traverse plural peakridges…in winter.”[45] In the winter of 1937, ateam of ten climbers successfully traversed theDaisetsuzan range over a period of threeweeks.[46] The club next shifted its focus to theHidaka range to the southeast, where it wouldspend the next four years engaged in aspectacular “struggle” (chōsen) to open theunclimbed winter range; and its greatest battleto “conquer” (seifuku) the mercilessPetegaridake.[47]

When one considers its remote location, itserratic climate, and the intricate web of knife’s-edge ridges that runs through its spine, itcomes as no surprise that the Hidaka rangewas the last to be traversed in Hokkaido.[48] In order to surmount this formidabletopography, the AACH transitioned its climbingtechnique from that of alpine-style climbing toexpedition-style climbing. In dealing with thesegrueling traverses, the AACH devoted a greatdeal of time to strategic planning and

innovation. The AACH archives overflow withdocuments from this period outlining thepreparation of equipment outlays, food caches,and contingency routes that were an essentialpart of the AACH’s highly successfulexpeditionary climbing.

Two AACH climbers negotiating theHidaka range’s winter ridges. Image

courtesy of the AACH, Sangakukan, Sapporo,Japan.

It did not take long for the club to successfullytraverse most of the range—completing climbsfrom Pirikanopuri (1631 m) to Nakanodake (1519 m) in the south andKamuiekuchikaushiyama (1979 m) toIdonmappudake (1752 m) in the north. In 1937,the club attempted a traverse fromKoikashūsapporodake to Petegaridake, but wasforced to turn back near the summit due to badweather and gale force winds. This failure onlysteeled the AACH for another attempt toconquer what one member described as the“crown jewel” of the Hidaka range. The clubcontinued its expeditions to the rangethroughout the decade, and by 1940 onlyPetegaridake stood in its way.[49]

Naturally, in its effort to conquer Petegaridake,the AACH turned to modern alpinetechnology.[50] In 1937, the AACH began astrategic map-making project and employed the

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various skills of its members to, among otherthings, draw pictures, take photographs, recorddetailed scientific calculations of snowconditions, and build scale models of the rangein order to gather the intelligence it needed totriumph over Petegaridake. Records indicatethat the AACH was even involved in developingnew mountaineering hardware: numerousdocuments contain prototype drawings ofwinter climbing equipment—including tents,skis, and cooking stoves.[51] One team, led byclub president Oikawa Sei, was put in charge ofdesigning a new tent. What they produced wasan impressive four-season tent, supported bystrengthened metal poles, and a pulley systemto securely cinch closed the dual doors and airvents. The tent was tailor-made for long treksand high altitude camping, and was the first ofits kind.

A prototype drawing of the tent designedfor the harsh conditions of the

Hidakasanmyaku range. Courtesy of theAACH, Sangakukan, Hokkaido University,

Sapporo.

Yet another team drew up an expeditionitinerary, dividing the ten-man team into threesummit groups, each assigned a differentrotation in the climbing schedule andmaintenance of the four different camps alongthe route.

An expedition schedule of the AACHattempt of Petegaridake in 1940. Courtesy

of the AACH, Sangakukan, HokkaidoUniversity, Sapporo.

One might think that these men were taking acrack at Everest. But all of this effort was for amountain standing at a humble 1736 meters.After nearly six months of planning andpreparation, the AACH was ready for anotherattempt at the siege of Petegaridake.

On December 29, 1940 a team of climbersdeparted Sapporo bound for Petegaridake. OnJanuary 2, 1940, the ten-man team set up theiradvanced base camp near the banks of theSatsunai River and settled in to wait for astretch of good weather. On January 5 it came,and the team set off for camp II, determined tod i g i n j u s t a b o v e t h e r i d g e o fKoikashūsatsunaidake (1721 m). One memberof the team, Hashimoto Ryō, stayed behind,stricken with “a nasty cold.” After a longapproach leading to the gulley that would takethem up to the ridge, the team sat down forlunch before the exhausting push up to theridge. At around noon the team shoulderedtheir packs and readied their axes for the steepclimb ahead. Slowly but steadily they advancedtowards the ridgeline. Then, suddenly, a largeslab of corniced snow and ice broke loose,triggering an avalanche that instantlyentombed the party. Only Uchida Takehiko, theclimber at the tail end of the team, survived theavalanche (due in large part to the heroic

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search-and-rescue effort by Hashimoto).

The last photograph taken of the AACHparty lost in the 1940 accident. On the far

right, facing the camera, is UchidaTakehiko, the only survivor of the accident.

Image courtesy of the AACH, Sangakukan,Hokkaido University, Sapporo.

After carrying out a thorough search for theremaining eight members, and determiningthat they were beyond recovery, Hashimotor e t r e a t e d t o t h e n e a r b y t o w n o fSapporosatsunai (a taxing two-day hike away),where he dispatched the following tersetelegram, whose original is still preserved inthe archives of the AACH:

Showa 15, January, 9

To: Oikawa Seia [Club Leader]

Petegari, on the 5th; Koiboku[name of gulley], just under theridge; Wrapped in avalanche;Kasai, Arima, Katayama, Tokura,Shimizu, Haneta, Kondō, Watanabelost; No hope (nozomi nashi);Uchida and Hashimoto spared.[52]

The telegram was received early in theafternoon of January 9th, and a rescue partywas deployed within hours, despite the factthat the party had been trapped under the

avalanche for nearly four days.

News of the accident sent shockwavesthroughout the country, with stories of theaccident running on January 10 in every majornewspaper—including the widely read TokyoAsahi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun, and TokyoNichinichi Shimbun. Most of these articles,bearing headlines like Yomiuri Shimbun’s“Eight Perish in Avalanche Accident,” simplylaid out the facts of the incident: the names ofthe deceased, the time, the place, and so forth.However, a series of more detailed articles inthe Hokkai Times (Hokkai Taimuzu) conveyedthe grizzly details of the search to dig up thebodies and return them for burial.

The Hokkai Taimuzu, January 10, 1940,detailed the accident and the climbers lost.

Public shock and outrage persisted for weeks,but it was not until the publication of aseething editorial in the Hōchi Shimbun onJanuary 21 that the AACH was publiclycondemned for its actions. Bearing the title “ToThose Who Tempt the White Devil,” the author,writing under a pseudonym, excoriated the“pervasive hysteria” of the sport, urging youngclimbers to eschew “their foolhardy faith” andnot to forget the legacy of the lost climbers. Inone revealing passage, the author opines asfollows:

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That nine [sic. eight] bright youngmen were lost for no other reasonthan to climb for notoriety revealsthe irrationality at the heart of thesport. What was once a leisurelyand safe pastime is now a recklesscompetition, squandering thepotential of many of our nation’sy o u t h … C l i m b e r s m u s treconsidered their priorities…Howmany more lives will it take?[53]

Passages such as this one further stoked theflames of public outrage, prompting the AACHto defend itself in an editorial published in theHokkaido University newspaper, and picked upby papers like Hokkai Taimuzu and YomiuriShimbun. The club wrote:

We had planned all contingenciesand had no way of predicting thefreak accident. We cannot bringback our lost colleagues, but wecan remember them by takingevery opportunity to scale backrisk in the future…We cannot,h o w e v e r , g i v e u p o n t h emountains…that would be tobetray the friends that we lost.[54]

On February 18, the AACH members held atown hall meeting where it gave an account ofthe accident and presented a defense of its ownactions, asserting, provocatively, that theywould not stop cl imbing: “to conquerPetegaridake is the only way to honor the lost;to abandon the challenge is to render theirdeaths in vain.” As promised, a team of AACHclimbers returned to the Hidaka range in 1942,and after two taxing attempts finally completedt h e f i r s t s u c c e s s f u l “ s i e g e ” o fPetegaridake—traversing from the Koikashūridge on January 5, 1942.

The story of Petegaridake is illuminating not

only because it provides insight into themotivations that drove these men into the heartof Hokkaido’s most dangerous peaks, but alsobecause it elucidates an important divisionbetween Japan’s elite climbers and the generalpublic. Not unlike the public outcry thatfollowed in the wake of the legendary WhymperParty accident on the Matterhorn in 1865,media outlets around the country began toquestion the value of the sport and theescalating levels of risk involved. This, in turn,forced climbers to defend mountaineering forthe first time and articulate a rationaljustification for why they should continue toclimb.[55]

Those justifications are revealing. Central totheir defense is a deep faith in science andprogress as a means to triumph over existingnatural forces. Indeed, what is striking aboutthe story of Petegaridake is how its ascent wasconceived in military terms: as a “battle”(sentō), planned by a “council of war,” againsta mountain to be defeated.[56] Confident in thevirtues of technology, science, and the art ofwar, these men lost their lives in the pursuit ofa mountain they had climbed in-seasoncountless times before. The competitive drivespurred on by the eternal race to be the firstwas no doubt also at the core of their ambition.In order to sustain the legacy of theirpredecessors—including the likes of suchpioneers as Itakura—the AACH had been forcedto search for new extremes and to take newrisks.

Conclusion

By 1940, the effects of total war had begun totake a toll on the AACH, limiting the club’senrollment to fewer than 10 members.Although the club managed to complete climbsthroughout the war, its ambition and resourceswere markedly curbed, as they averaged amere three climbs per year from 1941-45. Mostof the club’s members were sent off to thefront. Indeed, mountaineering clubs throughout

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the country were forced to cut back (or, insome cases, halt entirely) their alpine activitiesthrough the war years. The development andevolution of Japanese mountaineering was thussuspended until the Himalayan big peakexplosion that came nearly a decade aftersurrender.[57]

Alpinism in the pre-war period, as the story ofthe AACH has shown, was deeply rooted inmodern science and its subjugation of thenatural world. Indeed, as Peter Hansendescribed with reference to the transformationof Swiss Alpine mountaineering decadesearlier, “mountain conquest transferredprestige from the mountain to the climber.”[58]In Hokkaido the philosophical and ideologicalmores of climbing culture were similarly andimmutably altered. Previous notions ofreverence and awe that once temperedhumankind’s relationship with the mountainswere forever changed by a new emphasis onthe ability to subjugate or conquer thelandscape, and the advent and advancement ofwinter mountaineering only further supportedthis notion. The writings of the AACH ring withlanguage expressing confident dominance overthe mountains through which they tread.[59]This outlook no doubt sprang from the decades-long legacy of modernization that had alreadytransformed Hokkaido’s alpine frontier.

The subtle undercurrent of the story of theAACH is the gradual shift in perceptions ofHokkaido that brought its mountains to the foreof the Japanese alpine imagination. By 1940,Hokkaido’s peaks featured prominently inalpine journals and magazines and heralded, bythe climbing monthly Gakujin, for example, as“ t h e t r a i n i n g g r o u n d f o r m o d e r nmountaineering expeditions.”[60] This standsin marked contrast to the turn-of-the centuryalpine literature that expressed but a tinctureof interest in scaling the mountains ofHokkaido. That alpinists in the 1930s camefrom all over the country to experience theunique conditions of Hokkaido’s peaks

demonstrates not only the heightened interestin winter season mountaineering, but alsoHokkaido’s legitimated status as a part of theJapanese empire. Indeed, as Japanese began tolook outward toward empire in Asia, theyquickly forgot that Hokkaido was once a liminalspace on the fringes of the nation. In theprocess, Hokkaido’s mountains were thrust toprominence as modern symbols of an otherwiseprovincial frontier: as the givers of vitalresources and scientific truths that lay at thecore of modern Japan’s political and intellectualidentity.

If any single individual could embody thecul ture that co lored Japan’s a lp ineconsciousness in this period, it was ItakuraKatsunobu. His exposure to the radicaldevelopments in technology and science thatwere at the core of alpinism propelled him tothe cutting-edge of the sport. Furthermore, hiswillingness to embrace these developments andfashion them into his own style of climbing sethim apart from many of the more seasonedalpinists of his day. More compelling than ahunger for extremes, however, was Itakura’scuriosity: he wanted nothing more than toshatter the limitations he had set for himself.This type of natural curiosity will forever drivemountaineering and its trailblazers to newextremes. Indeed, the alpinists who followed inItakura’s wake knew this all too well, for heand many of his fellow AACH climbers lost theirlives with “their heads in the sky and theirsights to the summit.”[61]

David Fedman is a mountaineer and researcherliving in San Francisco, California. Heconducted this research as a 2008-09 FulbrightFellow. He wrote this article for The Asia-Pacific Journal. He can be contacted atdavid.fedman@gmail.com

The author is indebted to Nakamura Haruhikofor his invaluable assistance in the writing ofthis paper. This paper has benefitted greatly

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from comments by Maeda Kazushi, SebastienNault, Tak Watanabe, Kären Wigen, PhilipSeaton, Martin Hood and Scott Halcomb. Fortheir incalculable support, the author wouldalso like to thank David Satterwhite and JunkoBrinkman of the Japan-US EducationalCommission.

Recommended citation: David A. Fedman,"Mounting Modernization: Itakura Katsunobu,the Hokkaido University Alpine Club andMountaineering in Pre-War Hokkaido," TheAsia-Pacific Journal, 42-1-09, October 19, 2009.

Notes

[1] Itakura Katsunobu, Yama to yuki no nikki,(Sapporo: Nihon sangaku meitai zenshū, 1962),195.[2] For a detailed account of Kojima’s ascentsee Kondō Nobuyuki, Kojima Usui: Yama nofūryū shisha den (Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1978); Formore on Banryū’s alpine exploration seeMatsuura Takashirō, “Banryū shōnin niyarigatake kaizan” (Sokayama no kai: 2004).[3] For more on Itakura’s mountaineering featsin the Alps see Yasukawa Shigeo, Kindai nihontozan shi (Tokyo: Kisetsu shokan, 1976),339-359; and Tsunemichi Ikeda, “From theJapanese Alps to the Greatest Ranges of theWorld,” in Japanese Alpine Centenary, (Tokyo:Alpine Club of Japan, 2005), 31-36.[4] Itakura, Yama to yuki no nikki, 211.[5] See Kären Wigen, “Discovering theJapanese Alps: Meiji Mountaineering and theQuest for Geographical Enlightenment,”Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 31, No. 1,(2005).[6] Due in great part to the relative youth ofsettlements in Hokkaido, Hokkaido Universitywas the only national university (kokuritsu) onthe island, which made the AACH the onlysponsored mountaineering club until the end ofthe Second World War. While a few tankenbu(explorat ion club) and wandabogeru(wandervogel, in German) existed at HokkaidoUniversity, no other club actively pursued

technical mountaineering until the late 1950s.After the postwar education reforms numerousuniversities were founded, and with them camean influx in university mountaineering clubs.[7] Wigen, “Meiji Mountaineering,” 5.[8] See, for example, Yasukawa Shigeo, Kindainihon tozan shi, 1-11. Yasukawa periodizes theadvent of modern mountaineering history asconcurrent with the arrival of Perry’sblackships in 1853, and devotes a great deal ofattention to the influence of foreign climbers onpioneering Japan’s first major ascents; see alsoAlpine Club of Japan, Nihon sangaku kaihyakunen shi (Tokyo: Nihon sangaku kai,2007), 5-14.[9] Wigen, “Meiji Mountaineering,” 1.[10] For an exhaustive analysis of this effort tore in in Hokka ido see V iv ian B laxe l l(http://japanfocus.org/-Vivian-Blaxell/3211),"Designs of Power: The “Japanization” of Urbanand Rural Space in Colonial Hokkaidō," TheAsia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 35-2-09, August 31,2009.[11] See “Tanken no jidai,” in Me de miru nihontozan shi (Tokyo: Yama to keikokusha, 2005),28.[12] Brett Walker, “Mamiya Rinzō and theJapanese Exploration of Sakhalin Island:cartography and empire,” Journal of HistoricalGeography, Vol. 33, (2007), 288.[13] The two most prominent industriespursued by the Kaitakushi in Hokkaido at thetime were coal mining and timber harvesting.See Kaitakushi jidai, (Sapporo-shi Kyōiku iinkai:1989), 33-60.[14] Wigen, “Meiji Mountaineering,” 6.[15] Literature on mountaineering isprodigious. See, for example, Colin Wells, ABrief History of British Mountaineering,(London: British Mountaineering Council,2002); Peter H. Hansen, “Albert Smith, theA l p i n e C l u b , a n d t h e I n v e n t i o n o fMountaineering in Mid-Victorian Britain,”Journal of British Studies, Vol. 34, No. 3 (1995);Fergus Flemming, Killing Dragons: TheConquest of the Alps, (London: Granta Books,2000); and Trevor Braham, When the Alps Cast

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Their Spell: Mountaineers of the Golden Age ofAlpinism, (New York: In Pinn, 2004).[16] Shiga Shigetaka, for example, studiedgeography at Sapporo Agricultural College inHokkaido and went on to play a central role inthe popularization of mountaineering in the latenineteenth century. See Wigen, “MeijiMountaineering,” 6-10. Other geographer-cum-climbers include Benjamin Lyman and ItakuraKatsunobu.[17] “Hito wa naze yama ni noboru no ka,” inTaiyo Bessatsu: Nihon no kokoro, Vol. 103,(Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1998), 60. Special thanks toMartin Hood for bringing this passage to myattention.[18] Lyman’s journals are available in theNorthern Studies Collection, HokkaidoUniversity, Sapporo, Japan. Taisetsuzan is aless common transliteration of Daisetsuzan, atowering mountain range in central Hokkaido.[19] Ainu contributions to the pioneering of thesport are a highly understudied topic. Scantrecords indicate that Ainu guides played acritical role in the earliest in-season ascents ofHokkaido’s peak. Kaitakushi agents regularlyhired Ainu guides and used their knowledge ofhunting trails and mountain passes to scoutroutes and plan climbs. Due to the nature of thedocumentation, which was written by theforeign mountaineers themselves, theimpor tance o f these A inu gu ides inunderstated, if not absent altogether. Indeed,this was the case for the earliest ascents ofJapanese peaks throughout the archipelago.The earliest climbs of Britain’s Walter Weston,for example, would not have happened withoutthe aid of local hunter guides. In fact, it is likelythat many claims at first ascents are likelyfalse: local hunters and Buddhist practitionersof shugendō (an ascetic, mountain-dwellingfaith), such as Banryū, likely beat sportclimbers by decades. This debate has elicitedmuch comment and some criticism by modernscholars interested in Japan’s alpinelandscapes. For a critical assessment of Westonand a convincing description of the role playedby the lesser-known Japanese guides see Scott

Schnell, “Reverence or Recreation,” WorkingPaper, Asian Studies Conference Japan, (June2009). For more on Ainu perceptions ofmountains and nature see, for example,Yamada Takako, The Worldview of the Ainu:Nature and the Cosmos From Language,(Tokyo: Kegan Paul International, 2002).[20] For a more detailed profile of the trailblazers in Hokkaido see “Ezo sangaku kaikaihō,” No. 39, 22-44; and Koizumi, T., Tozanno tanjyō: Hito ha naze yama ni noboru you ninatta no ka, (Tokyo: Chūkō shinsho, 2001).[21] See Yasukawa Shigeo, Kindai nihon tozanshi, 325-375.[22] Tsunemichi Ikeda, “From the JapaneseAlps to the Greatest Ranges of the World,” inJapanese Alpine Centenary, (Tokyo: Alpine Clubof Japan, 2005), 31.[23] For further information on the emergenceof the mountaineering literature genre in Japansee Fujioka Nobuko, “Vision or Creation?Kojima Usui and the Literary Landscape of theJapanese Alps,” Comparative LiteratureStudies, Vol. 39, No. 4, (2002), 3,4, 8, 11;Wigen, “Meiji Mountaineering,” 8, 10-16; andYasukawa Shigeo, Kindai nihon tozan shi,73-121.[24] Wigen, “Meiji Mountaineering,” 23.[25] Although he is best known for hismountaineering feats in the Japan and SwissAlps, Maki “Yūkō” Aritsune’s greatestcontribution to mountaineering in Japan lies inthe role he played as a conduit and distributorof modern climbing technology, a responsibilityhe took on as an ambassador for the NihonSangaku kai to Europe. Maki’s distribution ofequipment gave countless aspiring alpinists thehardware they needed to innovate their craft.[26] The history of Hokkaido’s peaks would beincomplete without a brief mention of thethriving ski culture that well predatesmountaineering. Beginning in the early 1880s,ski slopes and resorts were established in thesouthern half of the island, with the firstrecorded recreational slope opened at Mt.Teine just outside of Sapporo in 1882. In 1903,Hokkaido University created its own ski club,

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which held regular trips to the slopes nearSapporo and soon ventured further into thewilderness to places l ike Niseko andDaisetsuzan where they engaged inbackcountry skiing—a natural precursor toalpine mountaineering. For more on its historysee Hokkaido daigaku sukii bu nanajyūnen shi(Sapporo: Hokudai yama no kai, 1982); for abroader discussion of the history of skiing inJapan see Nakamura Kenji, Nihon sukii nohasshōsen shi ni tsuite no kenkyū, HokkaidoUniversity Collection of Academic Papers,(2001) Vol. 84, 85-106.[27] The club’s activities from 1926-2005 havebeen expertly documented by the AACH’sarchivist, Nakamura Haruhiko. See Hokudaisangakubu yama no kai, Sangakubu nenpyō,(Sapporo: 2007). For further information on theactivities examined in this paper see Hokudaisangakubu yama no kai, Hokkaido sangakubuyama no kai shashin shū, (Sapporo: 2007), 1-9.[28] For more on the foundation of the RCC andItakura’s contributions to it see YasukawaShigeo, Kindai nihon tozan shi, 377-383.[29] Nihon sangaku meishu zenshū, (Tokyo:Akanu shuppansha, 1962), 154.[30] The shrine, Ashikuraji (芦峅寺), waserected near Itakura’s birthplace in Toyama. Itis still visited regularly by mountaineersclimbing in the nearby Chubu SangakuNational Park.[31] Wigen, “Meiji Mountaineering,” 15.[32] Itakura, Yama to yuki no nikki, 175.[33] Aspiring female alpinists did not join theAACH until the postwar era. This is not asmuch a reflection of the limited role played byfemales in the pioneering of the sport as it is aproduct of the overwhelmingly maledemographics of Hokkaido University. Only 29female students were enrolled at HokkaidoUniversity from 1918 to 1947. See HokkaidoDaigaku hyakunijyūnen shi, henshūshitsu (ed),“Hokudai no hyakunijyūnen shi”, (Sapporo:Hokkaido Daigaku Tosho Kankōkai, 2001), 37.For a comprehensive treatment of the historyof women and mountaineering in Japanese seeSakakura Toshiko, Nihon jyosei tozan shi,

(Tokyo: Daitsuki shoten,1992).[34] For more on the history of mountaineeringpublications in the pre-war period see MatsūraTakashi, Sangaku zasshi no rekishi ni tsuite,(Tokyo: Sokayama no kai shuppan, 2003).[35] An excellent collection of documents thatreveal the burgeoning consumer cultureunderlying mountaineering, including nearly1000 pages of advertisements, profiles, andphotographs, is Nihon sangaku kai, Sōhō, Vol.8, (Tokyo: Nihon sangaku kai, 1989).[36] The Japanese Alpine Society was foundednearly half a century after the British Alpineclub (1857). It came at the tail end of a longlineage of premier national mountaineeringinstitutions: the Osterreichische Alpenverein in1862, the Schweizer Alpenclub and the ClubAlpino Italiano in 1863, and the Club AlpinFrancais and the Osterreichischer Alpenclub in1878. In North America, the AppalachiaMountain Club was established in 1878, thenthe American Alpine Club in 1902. Both theNew Zealand Alpine Club and the MountainClub of South Africa were founded in 1891.[37] See, for example, Hattori Hideo, Tōge norekishigaku, (Tokyo: Asahi shimbunsha, 2007).[38] For more on the creation of the JAC seeMe de miru nihon tozan shi , 130-152;Yasukawa Shigeo, Kindai nihon tozan shi,210-224; and Wigen, “Meiji Mountaineering,”4, 7-10.[39] See Andrew Bernstein, “Whose Fuji?Religion, Region, and State in the Fight for aNational Symbol,” Monumenta Nipponica, Vol.63, No 1, (2008).[40] For more on the social and political forcesbrewing at this time see Kevin Doak. A Historyof Nationalism in Modern Japan: Placing thePeople. (Boston: Brill Publishers, 2007).[41] For more on the creation of Hokkaido andthe history of local spaces see Vivian Blaxell,"Designs of Power: The “Japanization” of Urbanand Rural Space in Colonial Hokkaidō."[42] For an in-depth narrat ive of thedevelopment of Hokkaido’s railway industry seeDan Free, Early Japanese Railways 1853-1914:Engineering Triumphs That Transformed Meiji-

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era Japan (New York: Tuttle, 2009); for generalinformation on the Kaitakushi and scientificprograms in Hokkaido see Brett Walker,“Sanemori’s Revenge”; and John Maki, WilliamSmith Clark: a Yankee in Sapporo, (Boston:Lexington Books, 2002).[43] Interestingly, these coal seams werediscovered by Benjamin Lyman in 1873 duringhis exploration of the island as a Kaitakushiofficial and professor of Geology at SapporoAgricultural College.[44] Brett Walker, “Sanemori’s Revenge:Insects, Eco-System Accidents, and PolicyDecisions in Japan’s Environmental History”Journal of Policy History, Vol. 19, No. 1 (2007),17.[45] Tsunemichi Ikeda, “From the JapaneseAlps to the Greatest Ranges of the World,” 32.[46] By the 1930s it became club protocol towrite pre- and post-expedition reports on eachclimb. These reports are available in the club’sarchives. See Hokudai sangakubu jyōhō, Vol. 7,(Sapporo: Hokudai sangakubu yama no kaizenshū, 1940), 5-65.[47] Hokudai sangakubu yama no kai, Hachijyūshūnen shi, (Sapporo: Hokudai sangakubuyama no kai, 2007), 22.[48] The Hidaka range is the only range inHokkaido, and one of only three ranges in all ofJapan, that shows evidence of glaciation. Formore see Umezawa S., Sugawara Y., and Nakagawa J., Hokkaido hidaka sanmyaku noyama (Sapporo: Hokkaido Shimbunsha, 1991).[49] Hokudai sangaku yama no kai kaihō, Vol.7, (Sapporo: Academic Alpine Club ofHokkaido, 1942), 22-32. For additionalaccounts of these traverses see Hokudaisangaku yama no kai, Kaihō, Vol. 7, 7-35; andKaihō, Vol. 8, 1-84.[50] In a revealing document dated 1939 theauthor describes the effort to conquerPetegaridake: “this tent, born from a lengthydevelopment process, will give us theadvantage to conquer the mountain…we haveconsidered every contingency and feel moreconfident.” See Hokudai sangakubu yama no

kai, Kaihō, Vol. 7, 89.[51] See Hokudai sangakubu yama no kai,Kaihō, Vol. 7, 22.[52] The original telegram is available in theAACH archives. See Hokudai sangaku bu yamano kai, “Uchida Takehiko shū,” Sangakukan,Sapporo, Hokkaido.[53] Hōchi Shimbun, “To Those Who Tempt theWhite Devil”, January 21, 1940.[54] Hokkaido Daigaku Shimbun, February 8,1940, page 3.[55] On July 14, 1865 a group of seven climberssuccessfully summited the Matterhorn in theSwiss Alps. On the descent a member of theteam lost his footing and took three of his ropepartners over a cliff to their deaths. Whymperand the remaining two guides were spared onlybecause the rope snapped. In the days tofollow, sensational accounts of the accidentcaptivated European media outlets andprompted a public condemnation of themountaineering community in general and theWhymper party in particular. For more on theWhymper party incident see Peter Hansen,“Albert Smith, the Alpine Club, and theInvention of Mountaineering in Mid-VictorianBritain,” 318.[56] Hokudai sangakubu yama no kai, Kaihō,Vol. 7, 24, 26, 33.[57] In the decades following the conclusion ofthe Second World War, Japanese climbersshifted their sights to Himalayan big peakclimbing, undertaking impressive expeditionsto Tibet and Nepal to put up a slew of firstascents and variations.[58] Peter Hansen, “Albert Smith, the AlpineClub, and the Invention of Mountaineering inMid-Victorian Britain,” 317.[59] For examples of this type of language inAACH documents see Hokudai sangaku buyama no kai, Kaihō, Vol. 7, 90, 92, 96, 106, 108.[60] “Hokkaido no yukiyama e ikō,” in Gakujin,January 1943, 25.[61] Itakura, Yama to yuki no nikki, 88.“Teppen made” was a common rallying cry foralpinists and is a term regularly used by theAACH.