Japan

Japan🏔️ 3 Peaks

Aritsune Maki

Aritsune Maki (known widely as Maki Yūkō) was born on February 5, 1894, in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. Educated at Keio University, Maki developed into a brilliant technical rock climber in the Japanese Alps before traveling to Europe in 1919 to pursue advanced alpine mountaineering in Switzerland and Great Britain. In the Bernese Oberland, Maki turned his attention to the formidable and unclimbed Mittellegi Ridge of the Eiger—a razor-sharp, heavily corniced limestone crest that had repelled alpine climbers for decades. On September 10, 1921, Maki alongside Swiss guides Fritz Steuri, Samuel Brawand, and Fritz Amatter completed the historic first ascent of the Mittellegi Ridge. In gratitude, Maki donated 10,000 Swiss francs to build the Mittellegi Hut, providing vital refuge for subsequent mountaineers. In 1925, Maki led a groundbreaking expedition of the Japanese Alpine Club to the Canadian Rockies, achieving the first ascent of Mount Alberta (3,619 m), one of North America's most challenging peaks, where the team famously left a silver ice axe on the summit. In 1956, at age 62, Maki served as the visionary general leader of the triumphant Japanese expedition to Manaslu (8,163 m), which achieved Japan's first 8,000-metre summit conquest. Maki served as President of the Japanese Alpine Club from 1944 to 1946 and again from 1957 to 1963. He passed away on May 2, 1989, honored as the greatest international mountaineer in modern Japanese history.

Japan🏔️ 1 Peak

Chōjirō Uji

Chōjirō Uji was born in 1841 in Oyama (present-day Kamiichi), Toyama Prefecture, Japan. Born into a mountain family, Chōjirō became a renowned matagi (traditional wilderness hunter) and expert guide across the rugged gorges of the Tateyama range and northern Hida Mountains. His ability to read snow conditions, survive extreme blizzards, and find safe routes across jagged precipices was legendary among mountain folk. In 1907, the Imperial Japanese Army Land Survey, directed to complete the definitive topographic mapping of Japan, tasked surveyor Yoshitaro Shibasaki with establishing a triangulation station atop Mount Tsurugi (2,999 m)—the only peak in Japan considered impossible to climb. Shibasaki recruited Chōjirō as the expedition's chief scout and guide. At age 66, possessing phenomenal physical vigor and route intuition, Chōjirō rejected the impassable rock faces of the front ridges, instead pioneering a route up a massive, hidden snow and ice couloir on the eastern flank, now known as Chōjirō Snow Gully (Chōjirō-setsu-kei). On July 13, 1907, Chōjirō led Shibasaki and the survey team safely to the summit crest of Mount Tsurugi, securing the historic first modern ascent. On the summit, they uncovered an ancient Shakujō (Buddhist bronze cane head) left by an ancient pilgrim, resolving centuries of myth. Chōjirō passed away in 1917, immortalized as one of the greatest natural mountaineers in Japanese history.

Japan🏔️ 2 Peaks

Jūji Tanabe

Jūji Tanabe was born on August 4, 1884, in Toyama Prefecture, Japan. A distinguished professor of English literature at Toyo University and Hosei University, Tanabe was a specialist in the romantic poetry of William Wordsworth. He brought this profound romantic reverence for wild nature into the heart of early Japanese alpine exploration. Tanabe was a pioneer of keikoku (mountain valley and river canyon) exploration, advocating that true mountain appreciation required ascending from the depths of primeval mountain gorges rather than merely collecting high summits. Between 1905 and the 1930s, Tanabe explored the deep ravines of the Kurobe River, the remote valleys of the Southern Alps surrounding Mount Kita, and the untracked ridges of the Okuchichibu range. In 1919, Tanabe published his celebrated masterpiece, Yama to Keikoku (Mountains and Keikoku / Mountains and Gorges). Blending lyrical nature writing with precise route-finding observations and philosophical meditations on solitude, the book became one of the most beloved classics in Japanese alpine literature, inspiring the foundation of Japan's famed mountaineering publishing house Yama-kei. Tanabe was a senior leader of the Japanese Alpine Club and continued hiking and writing well into his eighties. He passed away on September 22, 1972, leaving an indelible imprint on Japanese mountaineering culture.

Japan🏔️ 1 Peak

Junko Tabei

Junko Tabei (born Junko Ishibashi) was born on September 22, 1939, in Miharu, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. Considered a frail, slender child in post-war Japan, Tabei discovered her passion for the mountains at age ten during a school ascent of Mount Nasu. After graduating with a degree in English literature from Showa Women's University, she immersed herself in alpine climbing, frequently encountering the entrenched male chauvinism of mid-twentieth-century Japanese mountaineering clubs. Refusing to be marginalized, Tabei established the Ladies Climbing Club: Japan (LCC) in 1969 with the defiant motto: 'Let's go on an overseas expedition by ourselves.' After achieving the first ascent of Annapurna III (7,555m) by an all-female team in 1970, Tabei organized the Japanese Women's Everest Expedition in the spring of 1975. Raising funds by sewing waterproof gloves from recycled car seats and securing sponsorship from the Yomiuri Shimbun, fifteen female climbers departed for the Himalayas. On May 4, 1975, disaster nearly terminated the expedition when a colossal avalanche swept down from the Western Cwm into Camp II (6,500m), burying Tabei and her teammates in their tents. Dug out unconscious by their Sherpa guides, Tabei suffered intense back pain and leg bruising. Defying doctor's orders to abandon the mountain, she rested for two days and resumed climbing. On May 16, 1975, accompanied by Sirdar Ang Tsering Sherpa, Tabei navigated the razor-thin ridge past the Hillary Step and stepped onto the 8,848-meter summit of Mount Everest, etching her name forever into global exploration history as the first woman atop the world. Tabei continued breaking barriers for four decades. In 1992, she became the first woman in history to complete the Seven Summits, scaling the highest peaks on all seven continents. As Director of the Himalayan Adventure Trust of Japan, she spearheaded international clean-up campaigns on Everest to tackle discarded rubbish. Junko Tabei passed away from peritoneal cancer on October 20, 2016, at age 77, remembered as a courageous trailblazer who dismantled patriarchal climbing conventions through quiet grace, iron endurance, and environmental stewardship.

Japan🏔️ 2 Peaks

Kojima Usui

Kojima Usui (born Kojima Hisayoshi) was born on December 29, 1873, in Yokohama, Japan. A distinguished banker at the Yokohama Specie Bank by trade, Kojima was a passionate essayist, literary critic, and pioneer alpinist who spearheaded the intellectual awakening of Japanese mountaineering at the turn of the twentieth century. Inspired by the writings of Reverend Walter Weston and the romantic tradition of landscape aesthetics, Kojima sought to elevate mountaineering from traditional ascetic devotion into a profound communion with nature and modern sporting exploration. In October 1905, along with a cadre of fellow climbing enthusiasts and writers, Kojima co-founded the Sangaku-kai (Japanese Alpine Club), serving as its first president and editing its influential alpine journal Sangaku. Kojima led numerous pioneering expeditions throughout the Northern and Southern Japanese Alps. In 1902 and 1904, he explored the rugged ramparts of Mount Kita and the Shirane Sanzan ridge, documenting the sublime beauty of the Akaishi range in lyrical prose. His major multi-volume masterpiece, Nihon Arupusu (The Japanese Alps), published between 1910 and 1915, combined rigorous geographic observation with exquisite literary essays, inspiring an entire generation of Meiji and Taisho-era Japanese climbers to venture into the high peaks. Kojima died on December 13, 1948, recognized as one of the towering cultural figures in Japanese mountaineering history.

Japan🏔️ 1 Peak

Toshio Imanishi

Toshio Imanishi was born on December 14, 1914, in Kobe, Japan. Educated at Kyoto Imperial University, Imanishi was a dedicated alpinist and founding member of the modern Japanese high-altitude climbing movement. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, he forged demanding winter routes in the Northern Japanese Alps before focusing his ambition on the unclimbed giants of the Himalayas. Following Nepal’s post-war opening to foreign climbers, the Japanese Alpine Club (JAC) adopted Manaslu (8,163m)—the 'Mountain of the Spirit' in the Mansiri Himal—as Japan's national mountain objective. Imanishi served as a lead climber on the 1953 Japanese reconnaissance and the 1954 expedition. In 1954, the expedition was halted when local villagers from Sama Gompa barred their passage, believing previous foreign intrusions had provoked the mountain gods to unleash a devastating avalanche that destroyed their ancient monastery. Displaying immense cultural tact, patience, and diplomacy, Imanishi and team leader Aritsune Maki negotiated with local lamas, donating funds to rebuild the sacred monastery and securing permission to return. In the spring of 1956, the third Japanese expedition mounted a decisive assault up the Northeast Face. Teaming up with the formidable Nepalese Sherpa Sirdar Gyalzen Norbu, Imanishi established Camp VI at 7,800 meters. On the morning of May 9, 1956, using open-circuit oxygen equipment, Imanishi and Gyalzen Norbu navigated the steep, avalanche-swept snow plateau and climbed an extremely delicate, razor-thin snow crest. At 12:30 PM, both men stepped onto the pinnacle summit of Manaslu at 8,163 meters, claiming the eighth eight-thousander in human history. In Japan, the conquest of Manaslu created an overwhelming national sensation comparable to Britain's euphoria over Mount Everest, inspiring generations of Japanese climbers. Imanishi continued a distinguished industrial career while leading alpine initiatives, eventually serving as President of the Japanese Alpine Club from 1985 to 1989. He passed away on November 13, 1995, revered as one of the founding fathers of Asian high-altitude mountaineering.