Torii in the sky, Mt Fuji, Fujinomiya slope, Japan

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From Tsurugi-dake, Northern Japan Alps

B l a c k M a g i c

Back story "Tales of the Genjiro" on Captain's blog

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On the highest mountain in the Emperor's realm....

Related Captain's blog posting: The first woman to climb Mt Fuji

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Oku-Hodaka, December sunrise

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By the outbreak of the second world war, most of Hodaka's ridges, faces, and gullies had been explored. As Matsukata Saburô wrote, "Some nook or corner of the mountain still concealed a narrow ledge, a dance floor for a tengu, defended by sheer precipices on three sides and backed by a cliff, inaccessible to all but the true alpine adept. And, if you could only get there, the edelweiss would be blooming in sheets all around. Those were the kind of day-dreams we indulged in." Yet only a mountain on the sheer scale of Hodaka could harbour dreams like these.

After the war came the era of winter climbing. Climbing parties converged on those frozen faces during the New Year holidays, subjecting them to relentless assaults. At last unclimbed lines became sparse even for winter ascents.

Winter climbing takes its annual toll. Kosaka Otohiko and Uozu Kyôta are two more names, albeit fictional ones, in a roll that will never end. And with its cruel beauty the mountain will continue to lure men to their doom.

- Fukada Kyuya "One Hundred Mountains of Japan"

See blog at: onehundredmountains.blogspot.com/2008/01/hodaka-in-winter...

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Sunset at Oku-Hodaka hut

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See blog at: onehundredmountains.blogspot.com/2008/01/hodaka-in-winter...

Tags:   japan alps winter hyakumeizan mountains climbing takidani snow ice captain interesting mountain berg montagne 百名山

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