100 Famous Mountains of Japan Challenge

A quest for hikers in Japan based on the 1964 book 100 Famous Japanese mountains by mountaineer and author Kyūya Fukada. The mountains were not only selected by height but also based on a combination of grace, history, and individuality.

“Nowhere in the world do people hold mountains in so much regard as in Japan” writes Fukada in the afterword to this book. “Mountains have played a part in Japanese history since the country’s beginnings, and they manifest themselves in every form of art. For mountains have always formed the bedrock of the Japanese soul.”

The list became famous when Crown Prince Naruhito took note of it as one of his favourite books. The Crown Prince is a mountain enthusiast and it has been reported that it is a dream of his to reach the summit of every mountain on the list. In imitation of Prince Naruhito, many people have also set the goal of reaching every summit on the list.

The Challenge

To complete this travel challenge you must summit all 100 peaks:

If you want you can also share your stats and stories along the way of how you completed such an epic challenge.

Feel free to tag @travelmedals on Instagram or Facebook on each picture.

After completing the challenge you can reward yourself with a Travel Medal!

Click on the medal to be redirected to our store or click here.

Additional Information

There are limited resources available in english on this list of Japanese mountains. The Wikipedia page is a good starting point, Mac through his blog Halfway Anywhere has documented some of these climbs and finally Japan Hike which has a lot of useful descriptions of the mountains.

Mount Fuji: The most famous mountain in Japan.

100 Mountains of Japan

by Kyuya Fukada (Author), Martin Hood (Translator)

In One Hundred Mountains of Japan, Fukada pays tribute to his favourite mountains. Originating as a series of magazine articles about a personal selection of mountains, the work became an instant classic.

More recently, Japan’s national broadcasting company has turned the original Nihon Hyakumeizan into a memorable TV series. Consisting of one hundred short essays, each celebrating one notable mountain and its place in Japan’s traditions, the book is an elegantly written eulogy to the landscape, literature and history that define a people.

Fukada was bemused by his book’s success: “In the end, the one hundred mountains represent my personal choice and I make no claims for them beyond that.” Yet, half a century after he set down those words, his mountains have become an institution. Marked on every hiking map, his Hyakumeizan are today firmly embedded in the mountain traditions they grew out of.

Now available in English translation, One Hundred Mountains of Japan will serve as a guide for a new cohort of hikers and mountaineers. It also opens up new territories for students of Japan’s literature, folklore, religions, and mountaineering history – in short, for mountain-lovers everywhere.

While living and working in Japan during the 1990s, Martin Hood visited about a third of the country’s One Hundred Mountains. By chance, the first high mountain he climbed was Hakusan, the peak that presides over the birthplace of Fukada. Now based in Switzerland, he works for an international organization and is a member of the Academic Alpine Club of Zurich.

What an amazing travel goal to really discover Japan! Who has now added this challenge to their bucket list?