Hotaka
• Hiking time: 14 hours
• Estimated hiking distance: 14 miles
• Elevation gain: 5500 feet
• Topo Map: Topographical hiking map, #5 or Geospatial Authority of
Japan Online Map
• Difficulties: Some Class 4 climbing
• Permit: None required
Characteristics
Americans often comment in a rather self-satisfied way on how sexist other
countries and cultures are compared with theirs. In such conversations, economically
advanced countries such as Japan come in for particular criticism in
this regard for prosperity is judged to leave little excuse for outmoded sexist
attitudes. Frequently, however, those criticisms are made with only superficial
knowledge of the culture in question and without recognition of the multiple
facets that comprise any society. As with other stories in this collection, the
present tale is an account of a mountain adventure. It was an adventure that
yielded unexpected glimpses of Japanese society, insights that I had not recognized
before.
Let me hasten to add that I make no pretense that I have studied sexism in
Japanese society. This is simply a story, recounting one brief personal experience
on the slopes of the mountain known as Hotaka-dake in the scenic Japan Alps.
Of course, like any other visitor to Japan I had witnessed the bent old ladies
shuffling home through the narrow city streets while loaded down with groceries.
I had met the wives of acquaintances who seemed fearful of voicing opinions and
intent only on serving every need of the husband and his guests. Of course, I had
heard the indignant stories of western visitors who had been fondled on crowded
subway trains. And on one occasion I had even climbed a sacred mountain, the
summit of which was off-limits to women.
But, on these many travels in Japan, I had really only had the most superficial
encounters with women. Probably, the only contact beyond the superficial
had been with Sachie Kamijo, the wife of my good friend Kenjiro Kamijo. Sachie
spoke excellent English and had spent a year in California when Kenjiro visited
Caltech. She seemed fully in control of her life and surroundings, an equal
partner with Kenjiro in all that they did together and as liberated as any American
woman. Moreover, I had met dominant Japanese women who clearly ruled
the home and, on the trains and in the cities, I had seen numerous groups of
independent women enjoying the company of their own sex and embarking on
outings and adventures far from their husbands and fathers. In contrast, in
a hut high on the slopes of Fuji-san I had spent an evening transported back
into some distant time of myth and make-believe when an old woman read the
extended story of my life from the wrinkles in my palm (see “Fuji”). Thus the
range of intergender relationships seemed as broad in Japan as in the United
States and it made me wonder yet again about the injustice of characterizations
based on a few anecdotes.
