Sierra Club Bulletin. 



THE ASCENT OF ASAMA-YAMA. 



By the Rev. Professor Edward A. Wicher, 



Of the San Francisco Theological Seminary. 



It was 7 o'clock on a perfect August evening when 

 amid the first settling shadows we gathered in prepara- 

 tion for our ascent in the street of the little village of 

 Karuizawa. Dominating the whole valley rose the 

 mighty bulk of old Asama, 8,i6o feet above the level of 

 the sea, 4,200 feet above the level of the valley in which 

 the village nestles. Between us and Asama was the lesser 

 height of Hanare-Yama, the mysterious mountain of the 

 cave of bats, which rose 1,500 feet above the village. 

 Upon the other side of the valley beyond the fields rose 

 the gentler elevation of Usui-toge, which from this side 

 gave no intimation of the awful precipice just beyond 

 our view ; for upon yonder height one stands at the edge 

 of the plateau. Behind us rose the low hill of Atago- 

 Yama, with an ancient Shinto shrine clinging to its steep 

 sides and a covering of long bamboo grass, in which a 

 bear was captured only the week before. Behind Atago 

 the hills stretched out in long green ridges, constantly 

 increasing in height from Fuji-mi to Iriyama. 



The village itself is something more than the ordinary 

 Japanese village. Its main street is wider and straighter 

 than such streets usually are. In the days of old Japan, 

 when the Shogun still ruled in Tokyo, and the pro- 

 cessions of daimyos passed through the country every 

 year to pay their tribute of rice and honor unto their 

 feudal sovereign, Karuizawa, being a chief stopping-place 

 on the Nakasendo road, situated at the head of the pass 

 in the mountains whence the paths run down from the 

 great middle plain to the sea, was a thriving, busy little 

 place filled with good old-fashioned inns and courteous 



