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Chubu-Sangaku NP, Nagano / Gifu
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Buddhist priest Banryu made Yari’s first recorded ascent in 1828—37 years before the Matterhorn’s famous 1865 first ascent. He saw the peak as a Buddhist Pure Land, not a sporting trophy.
The Ko-yari, or “Little Spear,” in the familiar Japanese song Alps Ichiman-jaku is a real rock pinnacle near Yari’s summit, on the Nishikama ridge—not an imaginary alpine landmark. It’s a technical climb.
Yari’s early approach followed a trade-road dream: the 42.6-kilometre Hishu Shindo was planned to exchange Azumino rice for Hida seafood, cutting a journey of over 100 kilometres. Banryu used its unfinished section to reach the mountain.
Yari’s spear point is a glacier sculpture: ice carved the summit from all 4 sides into a horn, leaving sharp ridges. The surrounding Hotaka range began as a caldera volcano about 1.76 million years ago.
During an 1833 ascent, Banryu spent 17 days chanting in a cave on Yari’s flank. When he grew too weak to descend, local guide Nakata Mataju went back for him and carried him down.
Banryu’s followers first fixed straw rope and wooden hooks to the rock to help climbers. Iron chains were confiscated during a famine and installed only in 1840; Banryu, ill in Matsumoto, heard the news from his sickbed.
British engineer William Gowland used the phrase “Japanese Alps” in his writing after climbing Yari. Local hunter and mountain guide Kamijo Kamonji led Gowland to the summit; Walter Weston later helped popularize the name abroad.
The author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa climbed Yari at 17, in 1909, and wrote a travel account of the trip. That youthful mountain experience later informed the Kamikochi scenery in his novella Kappa.
Nearly a century after Banryu’s ascent, Yari’s first climb in snowy conditions was made in March 1922 by a party that included Yuko Maki. Maki had made a landmark first ascent of the Eiger’s east ridge the year before.
The high-alpine dwarf-pine belt from Yari through Hotaka is habitat for the Japanese ptarmigan, a threatened bird of central Honshu’s high mountains. It nests among low pines and turns mostly white in winter.
A summer clinic has operated at Yari’s 3,060-metre shoulder since 1950. Volunteer doctors and nurses take turns staffing this “clinic above the clouds,” a remarkable medical lifeline beside the summit.
Yari Sanso celebrates 100 years in 2026: its predecessor opened on the shoulder in 1926 as a modest 32-tsubo hut—about 106 square metres. The lodging rate then was 2.40 yen.
