This section of SDJ will slowly gather a history of events and people in Japanese alpinism.

There are some good books written about the early days of alpinism. Many are quite similar and some have a unique twists but nearly all of them bang on about the same mountains and peaks (Mont Blanc, Matterhorn etc). There is nothing wrong with that as after all, it’s where alpinism was born, thanks to the English.

What else took place after the Golden Age of alpinism set modern attitudes into motion? The Golden Age (ending in about 1865) introduced adventurous Englishmen - and other nationalities - to the worthwhile personal and scientific pursuit of mountaineering. If you were in Europe during those days then you likely got caught up in it and acquired a bit of skill along the way. Then, if you travelled further from home you most likely took that skill and interest to wherever you landed next. This was happening a lot, and one group of well travelled people were English clergymen on Missionary postings.

In 1888 the Rev. Walter Weston was posted to the Japan as part of the Missionary Society and spent 15 years living in Japan and over 6 of them he explored the mountains and popularising the name "Japanese Alps". In 1896 he wrote Mountaineering and Exploring in the Japanese Alps.  According to Wikipedia he is remembered in the ceremony that opens the annual climbing season in the Kita Alps.

A while ago I bought an unabridged facsimile of his book. At the same time that the Andes and the Rockies were being explored, Weston was out hiring hunters from near Matsumoto to guide him up Hodakayama and Yarigatake. It was only during this time that the Karakoram Himalaya were first surveyed and Alfred Mummery died on the infamous Nanga Parbat in Pakistan. Mount Cook in New Zealand had not quite yet been summited and Kilermanjara on Africa was only a recent conquest.

From the start, the Japanase Alps were part of the boom in international alpinism and exploration. Thankfully something was written about it at the time. Of course Japanese alpinists of the late Meiji period were also writing about their adventures and first recorded ascents and I look forward to having my Japanese partner read these records to me. I am sure she won’t mind reading out loud. One aspect that makes Weston's book satisfying is that writing about ones alpine rambles was all the rage in upper class London: both privately and as contributions to the Alpine Journal and other new era travel papers. Prolific and pompous story telling was booming and Mountaineering and Exploring in the Japanese Alps is a small part of that trend in history.

The initial focus on a foreigner’s Trip Report blog from 1896 does not imply than alpine history was made by gaijins, nor indeed that Weston even made histiry.  He was just part of it. Weston's book is the only significant historical source written in English at my disposal at this point in time.   It was Weston who popularised the term 'Japanese Alps' and for a foreigner like me its a good place to start.  Indeed, the book introduces the average unkowing gaijin like me to several important people and cultural instances in Japanese alpine history that I might otherwise not have found out about.