is a mountain on the border of
Gunma Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 km2 (2,456 sq mi). Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima ...
and
Niigata Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...
in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. It is one of the
100 famous mountains in Japan.
Routes
![Mount Tanigawadake Relief Map, SRTM-1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Mount_Tanigawadake_Relief_Map%2C_SRTM-1.jpg)
The mountain trail leading to the summit of Mount Tanigawa from four directions: north, south, east and west. The easiest and most popular is the southern route via the
aerial tramway
An aerial tramway, sky tram, cable car, ropeway, aerial tram, telepherique, or seilbahn is a type of aerial lift which uses one or two stationary ropes for support while a third moving rope provides propulsion. With this form of lift, the grip ...
, and many families reach the summit on holidays.
Rock climbing routes are graded according to the Japanese Ice Climbing Rating from I-VI and there are numerous routes along the Eastern Ridges, with significant rock routes for summer climbing. Although the mountain is less than Mt. Fuji (in fact barely half its height), the relief is stark, with some routes starting as low as at above sea level and topping out at or near the summit.
Like many mountains in Japan, there is no officially recorded first ascent. Many mountains have a religious significance and have been hiked and summitted by Japanese religious ascetics for hundreds of years.
Weather
The mountain lies on the border of Gunma and Niigata Prefectures and sits precisely where the weather systems from the Asian continent and the Pacific meet in often furious displays of
extreme weather
Extreme weather or extreme climate events includes unexpected, unusual, severe, or unseasonal weather; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. Often, extreme events are based on a locat ...
. Cornices on the ridge can reach out over 20 metres and occur at lower levels of the mountain as well as along the summit ridge. When avalanche risk is high, the consequences can be particularly dangerous given the steep terrain and over 1000m of relief to gather force.
Safety
Although many trekking routes leading to the summit are relatively safe, there have been many deaths due to rock climbing, so it is sometimes called "mountain of death".
As of December 2014, since its initial exploration and route-finding in the early 1930s, a total of 805 people have died on Tanigawa-dake. (Compare with the approximately 200 people who have died on Mt. Everest over a comparable period.) In 1943, a climbing party disappeared on the mountain. They were not found until another climbing party stumbled upon their remains in 1973. In the 1960s, there was a famous rescue attempt of Japanese climbers on the main face who had died of exposure. Their bodies were eventually brought down when the Japanese Self-Defense Forces cut the rope with gunfire in order to retrieve the bodies.
[( ja]
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Japan offers a high level of support with helicopter trained mountain rescue teams, though with high wind there is always the chance that they cannot be deployed. Along the upper ridges are two safety huts. One is the emergency hut for 2-3 near Ichinokura-dake (一ノ倉岳), which may be hard to find on deep snow and therefore unusable. The much larger "Shoulder Hut" below the summit of Tanigawa-Dake is much more spacious, but is unheated and unmanned in winter.
Sometimes called the mountain of death, the mountain is bedecked at all levels with commemorative plaques for those who have died on the mountain. Some of these groups have been rather large. Near the base of the mountain is a large sculpted piton, with an adjoining wall inscribed with the names of all those who have died on the mountain.
Misc
The closest train station is Doai Station
is a passenger railway station in the town of Minakami, Gunma, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It is jokingly known as Japan's Number One Mole Station (日本一のモグラ駅, Nippon ichi no mogura eki) due to the ...
(土合駅).
Climbing Mount Tanigawa is one of the main storylines in the novel ''Climber's High
is a 2008 Japanese film directed by Masato Harada.
The film is about a newspaper editor (played by Shin'ichi Tsutsumi) who deals with the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123.
Accolades
51st Blue Ribbon Awards
* Best Film
* Best Supporting Actor ...
'', which was made into an NHK
, also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee.
NHK operates two terrestr ...
documentary in 2005 and a movie in 2008.
Japanese clothing and lifestyle retailer Snow Peak is named after Mount Tanigawa.
In Gunma's Jomo Karuta
are Japanese playing cards. Playing cards were introduced to Japan by Portuguese traders during the mid-16th century. These early decks were used for trick-taking games. The earliest indigenous ''karuta'' was invented in the town of Miike in ...
, Mount Tanigawa is featured on the 'mi' card.
Yuzuha Usagi's father went missing while climbing Mount Tanigawa in Alice in Borderland manga/TV series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed betw ...
.
Gallery
Image:Tanigawa01.JPG, Mount Tanigawa from the south
Image:Tanigawa06.JPG, The top of Mount Tanigawa with clouds
Image:Tanigawa07.JPG, The top of Mount Tanigawa
Image:Tanigawa03.JPG, Mount Hotaka and Akagi Mountains from Mount Tanigawa
Image:Tanigawa02.JPG, South wall of Mount Tanigawa
Image:Tanigawa04.JPG, South wall of Mount Tanigawa
Image:Tanigawa05.JPG, The route to the top of Mount Tanigawa
Image:Tanigawa08.JPG, South slope of Mount Tanigawa
20140907 095845-1 일본 타니가와산 한중일 산악구조대 합동훈련.jpg, Korea-Japan-China Joint Rescue training
See also
* List of the 100 famous mountains in Japan
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
* Tanigawadake Ropeway The is Japanese aerial lift line, operated by Tanigawadake Ropeway Company. The Tobu Railway, Tōbu Group company also operates another aerial lift line, Harunasan Ropeway. Opened in 1960, the line climbs Mount Tanigawa Tenjindaira Ski Resort, Min ...
References
{{Authority control
Tanigawa