1907 Imperial Land Survey Historic First Modern Ascent of Mount Tsurugi

Official Expedition Narrative & Archival Record

At the opening of the twentieth century, Mount Tsurugi (2,999 m) stood as the ultimate unconquered citadel of the Northern Japanese Alps. Local folklore held that the razor-sharp granite horn was a forbidden realm of needles and swords reserved for the damned in Buddhist cosmology. With the Imperial General Staff requiring a complete first-order trigonometric network across Japan, surveyor Yoshitaro Shibasaki was ordered to construct a survey pillar upon Tsurugi's virgin apex. A dramatic race ensued when members of the newly formed Japanese Alpine Club announced their intention to conquer Tsurugi as an amateur sporting triumph. Shibasaki enlisted Toyama's most revered matagi hunter, 66-year-old Chōjirō Uji, as his chief mountain scout. Rather than attempting the crumbling, impassable southern cliffs, Chōjirō scouted a hidden route up an enormous snow-filled canyon on the eastern wall—now forever known as Chōjirō Snow Gully. On July 13, 1907, cutting steps into steep hard-packed snow and scrambling up vertigo-inducing granite chimneys, Chōjirō Uji, Shibasaki, and three surveyors stepped onto the razor summit crest. There, nestled between the summit boulders, they made an astounding discovery: a rusted iron sword blade and a bronze Shakujō (ascetic pilgrim's staff head) dating back over a thousand years to the early Heian period. Ancient ascetic monks had scaled the terrifying peak centuries before modern mountaineering began, uniting ancient faith with modern science in one of the greatest alpine adventures in Asian history.