Mostly Japanese Mountains: Mt. Kayagatake and eight other peaks. Paying respects to Kyuya Fukada on the way.

S'up?

. . . about Mt. Kayagatake

This mountain has the sad honor of being the last mountain attempted by a man whose contributions to raising interest in mountaineering in Japan cannot be overestimated. Mt. Kyuya Fukada (深田久弥) was a journalist who loved mountains. He climbed all over Japan and wrote a book of essays about 100 mountains that he thought were important for their grace, beauty or historical value in 1964. In English, we call his list the 100 Famous Mountains. In Japanese, it's called hyaku meizan. That list has inspired many people to chase at least some of the mountains that Mr. Fukada liked. It has also spurred innumerable copycats such as the "200 (or 300) Famous Mountains," "100 Famous Flower Mountains," or the "100 Famous Mountains of (insert geographic location here)," etc.

Mr. Fukada suffered a stroke while hiking and passed away just before reaching the summit of Kayagatake in March, 1971.

I made note when reaching the spot where he passed away in that it was just past a viewpoint with a beautiful view of Mt. Fuji. I like to think that one of the last things he saw was a majestic, snow-covered Mt. Fuji.

Area:

The corner of Yamanashi where Kai, Hokuto, Nirasaki and Kofu Cities intersect. Views of Fuji, the various Alps, Mizugaki, Kinpu, and Yatsugatake are supremely spectaculifferic!

Location:

Map: ***If you want a link to the latest Yama to Kogen map, comment and I'll get you a link. This link is to a printable topo map of this area.

Starting and stopping point:

Mt. Kayagatake Parking Lot, Nirasaki City, Yamanashi

Peaks bagged: 茅ヶ岳(Kaneyagatake) ~ 金ヶ岳(Kanagatake) ~ 曲山(Magariyama) ~ 八丁峰(Hacchoumine) ~ 枡形山(Masugatayama) ~ 黒富士山(Kurofujiyama) ~ 鬼頬山(Onigawayama) ~　太刀岡山(Tachiokayama) ~ 太刀岡山南峰(Tachiokayama Minamimine)

(First-time) peaks # 1,101~1,107

Getting there/getting around:

I drove. There are free parking spaces at both trailheads I used.

Buses from Nirasaki take about 2 hours. They run on Saturdays and Sundays from the first Saturday in April through November 23. See the picture of the bus schedule at the end of the post for the schedule and the bus company's phone number.

Helpful Info

Weather Information:

Tenkura

Time and distance

YAMAP's ** Estimate Time: 10:57 Distance: 14.8 km

The Caveman did it in: ** Total Time: 6:45 (8:52) Break time: 1:05 Distance: 14.7 km (18.5 km)

** The YAMAP application only traces the trails. After reaching the trailhead of the day, I had to bushwhack about 4 km. This extra time and distance is reflected in the parentheses.

Elevation: Lowest: 842 m Highest: 1,755 m Total Ascent: 2,080 m Total Descent: 2,080 m

Technical considerations/difficulty:

While these aren't very high mountains, the trail is steep, and there is a lot of up and down. A total ascent of 2,000 meters is a lot of climbing. Trust me. Climbing Mt. Fuji from the Shizuoka side means going up and down a mere 1,650 meters. (Even that is more than a mile for you people who can't calculate metrics.) Having to come down that much is also a lot of strain on your knees.

Getting up to Kayagatake isn't too difficult. From Kanagatake all the way to the end is more strenuous. There are a lot of chains and ropes you need to use to negotiate steep slopes or boulders. There are also some knife-edge ridges.

There is one viewpoint called めまい岩--"Dizzying Boulder." I gave it a pass.

It's not that challenging, but you really need to watch your step and, in some places, you have to carefully look at the boulders to choose the best routes

Facilities:

There is a toilet at the parking lot. No facilities and no water on the trail.

Thoughts/observations/recommendations:

As always, I'm glad I did this. This was actually my second time for some of these mountains. The first time I went, I had no idea about Mr. Fukada's connection to the mountain until after I'd gotten home. I had chosen the mountains based just on the distance from home and considerations like that. On that trip, I also missed his spot because I passed on a parallel trail. For this day's hike, I wanted to bag several peaks (Magari~Tachioka) on an adjacent loop. Since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to make it a much longer hike so that I could pay my respects to Mr. Fukada. It made for a long hike. You don't have to hike as far as I did to have a good hike/workout. The Caveman did get a satisfying sense of accomplishment by wiping each of the peaks in this area off his bucket list, though.

If it is your thing, you might look into the Fukadasai (Fukada Festival) every April in the park. There is a commemorative climb on that day, too.

If you really want to honor Mr. Fukada, how about packing some anpan (sweet roll packed with red bean paste) with you when hiking? Word on the street is that he was an anpan freak and always hiked with it.