Mount Unzen

A steamer voyage from Kobe opens a summer journey into Unzen’s volcanic landscape. Coastal roads recall the Riviera; boiling hot-spring hells awaken visions of persecuted Christians. Above them lie cool golf links, foreign holidaymakers, mist-filled ravines and summits with sweeping views of islands and sea.

Traveling in July 1927, novelist Kikuchi Yūhō records the pleasures and surprises of a mountain resort in transition. His close attention to flowers, moss, forests and weather gives the scenery an intimate life. Short poems punctuate the prose as he watches evening light, mountain fog and sunrise over the water.

The journey ends inside an unexpectedly beautiful lava flow, where twisted pines and flowering shrubs form a vast natural garden. Delight gives way to a warning: visitors should cherish the plants rather than carry them away.