1905 Kojima Usui Mount Kita Traverse & Founding of the Japanese Alpine Club

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🏔️ 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.

United Kingdom🏔️ 2 Peaks

Walter Weston

Reverend Walter Weston was born on December 25, 1861, in Derby, England. Educated at Cambridge, Weston was an avid member of the British Alpine Club who honed his climbing craft in the Swiss Alps. In 1888, he traveled to Japan as an Anglican missionary of the Church Missionary Society, serving in Kumamoto, Kobe, and Yokohama. Fascinated by the rugged topography of central Honshu, Weston spent his vacations exploring the untracked mountain ranges of central Japan. While traditional Japanese ascents were conducted primarily as sacred religious pilgrimages (Sangaku Shinkō) by ascetic yamabushi priests, Weston introduced the European ethos of mountaineering for athletic challenge, scientific curiosity, and aesthetic joy. Accompanied by local hunters and guides such as Kamijō Kamonji, Weston achieved first modern sporting ascents of major summits across the Hida Mountains (Northern Alps) and Akaishi Mountains (Southern Alps), including Mount Hotaka, Mount Kita, Mount Yari, and Mount Shirouma. In 1896, Weston published his landmark book, Mountaineering and Exploration in the Japanese Alps, which introduced Japan's alpine wonderland to the Western world and popularized the term 'Japanese Alps' (originally coined by English mining engineer William Gowland). He also encouraged the foundation of the Japanese Alpine Club in 1905, becoming its first honorary member. Today, an annual memorial festival is held in his honor in Kamikochi, and he is universally revered across Japan as the father of modern Japanese mountaineering.