The is a series of

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

s in Japan which bisect the main island of

Honshu , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the list of islands by area, seventh-largest island in the world, and the list of islands by ...

. The peaks that tower over central Honshu have long been the object of veneration and pilgrimage. These mountains had long been exploited by local people for raw materials, including timber, fuel, fertilizer, fodder, meat, minerals, and medicines. Many visitors have come to the mountains for pilgrimage, especially to the

Buddhist temples A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat, khurul and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in Buddhi ...

located within them and the sacred peak of

Mount Tate , also known as Tateyama, is a mountain located in the southeastern area of Toyama Prefecture, Japan. It is one of the tallest mountains in the Hida Mountains at and one of Japan's along with Mount Fuji and Mount Haku. Tateyama consists of thr ...

. The name was coined by English archaeologist William Gowland, and later popularized by Reverend

Walter Weston Walter Weston (25 December 1861 – 27 March 1940) was an English clergyman and Anglican missionary who helped popularise recreational mountaineering in Japan at the turn of the 20th century. Background and early life Weston was born 25 Dece ...

(1861–1940), an English

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

for whom a memorial plaque is located at Kamikōchi, a tourist destination known for its

alpine climate Alpine climate is the typical climate for elevations above the tree line, where trees fail to grow due to cold. This climate is also referred to as a mountain climate or highland climate. Definition There are multiple definitions of alpine cli ...

. When Gowland coined the phrase, he was only referring to the Hida Mountains, but it now also applies to the

Kiso Mountains are a mountain range in Nagano Prefecture, Nagano and Gifu Prefecture, Gifu prefectures in Japan. They are also called the and they combine with the Hida Mountains ("Northern Alps") and the Akaishi Mountains ("Southern Alps") to form a group col ...

and

Akaishi Mountains The are a mountain range in central Honshū, Japan, bordering Nagano Prefecture, Nagano, Yamanashi Prefecture, Yamanashi and Shizuoka Prefecture, Shizuoka prefectures. They are also called the , as they join with the Hida Mountains ("Northern Al ...

History

The Japanese Alps has a long history before William Gowland established this name. The Japanese Alps have been used as a place of ascetic practice for Buddhists monks and '' Shugenja'' since ancient times. From the 1600s to the 1800s,

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

officers of the

Kaga domain The , also known as the , was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1583 to 1871.Hida Mountains with local hunters and farmers as guides to preserve the timber of the mountains and continued to create maps recording ridges, valleys and vegetation. This survey is called ''Okuyama-mawari'' ( 奥山廻り).Hiroshi Yonehara. ''新川郡における「山廻役」と「奥山廻リ」についての一考察''.
Tateyama Museum Even now, it is very difficult to cross the steep Hida mountains, one of the world's heaviest snowfall areas, in winter. Therefore, it is considered a historical event in Japan that in the winter of 1584, ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

Sassa Narimasa was a Japanese samurai lord of the Sengoku through Azuchi–Momoyama periods. He entered Oda Nobunaga's service at the age of 14 and remained in his service throughout Nobunaga's rise to power. He was a member of the so-called Echizen Sannin ...

's forces crossed over the mountain range over Zara Pass and Harinoki Pass. This event is called "Sarasara-goe" (さらさら越え) derived from Sassa and Zara Pass. However, these Hida Mountains surveys did not seem to have been inherited by modern Japanese mountaineers who trekked through the mountains as a sport. As Kojima Usui later recalled, “in those days,... no one knew even the names of the mountains, much less their locations or elevations. To go mountaineering was literally to strike out into the unknown country.” The first modern geological survey sheets were issued in 1890. The report mentioned major peaks, but the topography was mostly guesswork. From 1891, foreign travelers were able to find useful information in

Basil Hall Chamberlain Basil Hall Chamberlain (18 October 1850 – 15 February 1935) was a British academic and Japanologist. He was a professor of the Japanese language at Tokyo Imperial University and one of the foremost British Japanologists active in Japan during ...

and W.B. Mason's ''Handbook for Travellers in Japan''. However, for decades, the Japanese were climbing these mountains without a comparable guidebook. Japanese people did physical exploration over a decade in the 1890s. They divided the mountains into (north, central, and south) depending on how they were conventionally grouped. William Gowland, an English geologist, first thought of this swath of terrain as forming a single coherent landscape, comparable to the European Alps. Gowland's view was further developed by another Englishman and Christian missionary,

, who was able “to canonize Gowland's geographical conception, deploying it as a de facto proper noun”. Gowland explored several parts of the ranges in the 1860s, being the first documented foreigner to climb two peaks in the Alps, Mount Yari and Mount Norikura. Gowland was an archaeologist, and he explored these ranges for archaeological reasons. While Gowland was the first foreigner to explore the ranges, Reverend Walter Weston, a Christian missionary, was the first foreigner to document his experiences. About twenty years after Gowland's explorations, Weston explored the ranges himself with Gowland's notes on his explorations. Weston was led up many mountains by Kamijō kamonji, a mountain guide living in Kamikōchi. Weston explored the same ranges that Gowland previously traversed, and ascended the Mount Shirouma, Mount Jōnen, Mount Kasa, Mount Hotaka, and other minor mountains. Weston first documented the two main mountain systems distinguishable by geological structure. The first of these he called the "China system" due to its connection with southeast China from just south of the Japanese archipelago. The second was called the "Karafuto system", due to the fact that it enters Japan from

Karafuto , was established by the Empire of Japan in 1907 to govern the southern part of Sakhalin. This territory became part of the Empire of Japan in 1905 after the Russo-Japanese War, when the portion of Sakhalin south of 50°N was ceded by the R ...

to the north and runs southwest. These two were considered to be the first western explorers of the range, and as a result Weston, with the help of Gowland, popularized and documented different parts of the ranges in an incredibly in-depth manner for others to expand on. In 1907, Yoshitaro Shibasaki and others succeeded in climbing Mount Tsurugi, which is said to be the last unexplored peak in Japan and the most difficult to climb. On this occasion, they found the ornaments of a metal '' shugenja'' cane and a sword on the top of the mountain. A scientific investigation later confirmed that the ornaments of the cane and the sword were from the late

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...

to the early

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

. It turned out that Mount Tsurugi had already been climbed by ''shugenja'' more than 1,000 years ago. From the 1960s to the 1970s, the transportation infrastructure of the Japanese Alps was improved, and access to some popular mountain areas became dramatically easier, increasing not only climbers but also tourists. The Komagatake Ropeway opened in 1967, the Shinhotaka Ropeway opened in 1970, and the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route fully opened in 1971.

Ranges

Today, the Japanese Alps encompass the Hida Mountains (飛騨山脈), the

(木曽山脈) and the

(赤石山脈). These towering ranges include several peaks exceeding in height, the tallest after

Mount Fuji is an active stratovolcano located on the Japanese island of Honshu, with a summit elevation of . It is the highest mountain in Japan, the second-highest volcano on any Asian island (after Mount Kerinci on the Indonesian island of Sumatra), a ...

. The highest are Mount Hotaka at in north area and

Mount Kita is a mountain of the Akaishi Mountains−"Southern Alps" (南アルプス ''Minami-Arupusu''), in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. It is the second tallest mountain in Japan, after Mount Fuji, and is known as "the Leader of the Southern Alps".< ...

at in south area. Since Mount Ontake is far from the Hida Mountains, it is generally not included in the Hida Mountains, but it is often mentioned together with the Japanese Alps in mountain guidebooks. Mount Ontake is well known as an active

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most oft ...

, having erupted most recently in 2014.

Northern Alps

The Northern Alps, also known as the Hida Mountains, stretch through Nagano,

Toyama Toyama may refer to: Places * Toyama Prefecture, a prefecture of Japan located in the Hokuriku region on the main Honshu island * Toyama (city), the capital city of Toyama Prefecture * Toyama Station, the main station of Toyama, Toyama * Toyama Sta ...

and

Gifu is a Cities of Japan, city located in the south-central portion of Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and serves as the prefectural capital. The city has played an important role in Japan's history because of its location in the middle of the country. Durin ...

prefectures. A small portion of the mountains also reach into

Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,131,009 (1 July 2023) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...

. It includes the mountains Mount Norikura, Mount Yake, Mount Kasa, Mount Hotaka, Mount Yari, Mount Jōnen, Mount Washiba, Mount Suisho, Mount Yakushi, Mount Kurobegorō,

, Mount Tsurugi, Kashima Yarigatake (鹿島槍ヶ岳), Goryū dake (五竜岳), Mount Shirouma, etc.

Central Alps

The Central Alps, also known as the

, are located in the

Nagano prefecture is a Landlocked country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,007,682 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture ...

. It includes the mountains

Mount Ena is a mountain peak of the Kiso Mountains in the Chūbu region of Japan. Geography Mount Ena is in elevation. It is located on the border between Nakatsugawa, Gifu, Nakatsugawa in Gifu Prefecture and Achi, Nagano, Achi in Nagano Prefecture. Th ...

, Anpaiji mountain (安平路山), Mount Kusumoyama (越百山), Mount Minamikoma, Mount Utsugi,

Mount Hōken Mount Hōken () is one of major peaks in Kiso Mountains or Central Alps, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. It is 2,931 m (9,616 ft) high, and its shape is sharp pyramidal peak. Geography Mount Hōken is located on the main ridgeline of Kiso Mountains, Ki ...

Mount Kisokoma is a mountain located in Miyada, Nagano, Miyada, Kamiina District, Nagano, Kamiina District, and Kiso, Nagano (town), Kiso and Agematsu, Nagano, Agematsu, Kiso District, Nagano, Kiso District, Nagano Prefecture, in the Chūbu region of Japan. It ...

, Kyogatake (経ヶ岳), etc.

Southern Alps

The Southern Alps, also known as the

, span Nagano, Yamanashi, and Shizuoka prefectures. It includes the mountains Mount Tekari, Mount Hijiri, Mount Akaishi, Mount Arakawa, Mount Shiomi,

Mount Nōtori , or Nōtoridake, is one of the major peaks in the northern Akaishi Mountains, along with Mount Kita and Mount Aino. The peak

Mount Aino , or Ainodake, is a peak of the Akaishi Mountains−Southern Alps, in Minami Alps National Park, Japan. At , it is the third tallest peak in Japan and the second highest in the Akaishi Mountains.

Mount Hōō is located in the western portion of Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. Because the mountain has three peaks, it is also called Hōō Sanzan (鳳凰三山). It is in Minami Alps National Park and is one of the 100 Famous Japanese Mountains. Outline M ...

, Mount Kaikoma, Mount Senjō, Mount Nokogiri (Akaishi), etc.

Glaciers

Geographers previously believed that no active glaciers existed in Japan. The Japanese Society of Snow and Ice found this to be false in May 2012. By studying surface flow velocity and snow patches in Mount Tsurugi, they found that certain perennial snow patches have large masses of ice, upwards of 30 meters in thickness. This causes these snow patches to be classified as active glaciers, and as of 2019 there are seven active glaciers in the Japanese Alps, and all of Japan.北アルプス唐松沢を氷河に認定　流動を確認、国内7番目.

The Asahi Shimbun is a Japanese daily newspaper founded in 1879. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. The ''Asahi Shimbun'' is one of the five largest newspapers in Japan along with the ''Yom ...

. October 7, 2019

References

External links

Japan Alps 7 Cities Tourism
* {{Authority control Mountain ranges of Japan Tourist attractions in Japan