A Mountain Travel Diary of Oku-Chichibu

In the summer and autumn of 1912, before trail guides or huts, Kogure Ritarō and his friends pushed into the dark conifer ranges of Oku-Chichibu, the "Inner Chichibu" mountains west of Tokyo. They followed survey lines through rhododendron and hemlock, camped beside springs, lost the path at night, ate frost needles for want of water, and came down to villages of charcoal burners and red persimmons.

A Mountain Travel Diary of Oku-Chichibu, first published in the journal of the Japanese Alpine Club in 1916, is a classic of early Japanese mountaineering: a childhood memoir of the colors of a mountain range, three day-by-day climbing diaries, and a closing comedy in which the author describes his own party as three strangers on the road. Three shorter pieces complete the book: a guide to Oku-Chichibu with the legend of the wolf god of Mitsumine, an essay inviting ordinary walkers into the snow, and a portrait of an Edo-period samurai who walked out of the city just to see Mount Asama.

Each work is translated complete from the Japanese, with a translator's note, endnotes on places, units and customs, and source information.