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Paper short abstract

This paper examines how Japanese settlers reimagined Mt. Asahidake, a sacred site for the Ainu, into imperial symbols to assert territorial dominance and elevate Hokkaidō’s peripheral status within the Japanese empire between 1900s–1920s.

Paper long abstract

This paper explores how Japanese settlers constructed imagined geographies of Mt. Asahidake (also known as Mt. Daisetsu), the highest peak in Hokkaidō, to advance the island’s colonization. These narratives served two purposes: asserting territorial dominance and elevating Hokkaidō’s peripheral status within the Japanese empire. For the Ainu, Mt. Asahidake was a sacred "playground of gods," with its lower slopes providing vital game for hunting and its upper flanks imbued with mythic significance. Following Hokkaidō’s annexation in 1869, official and private expeditions were drawn to the mountain’s abundant rivers and timber. Yet, unlike Taiwan’s Central Mountain Range, Mt. Asahidake did not witness violent indigenous resistance, leaving it largely overlooked for four uneventful decades. This changed in the 1920s, particularly after the 1921 visit of Ōmachi Keigetsu (1869–1925), a renowned travel writer From Tokyo, who praised Asahidake for its unparalleled grandeur despite its modest elevation of 2,291 meters, challenging modern mountaineering’s fixation on height.

Based on archival research of newspapers and travelogues, this paper traces the evolving representations of Mt. Asahidake during the 1900s–1920s, shaped by various settler actors. The Hokkaidō government established the Hokkaidō Alpine Club to promote the mountain’s sublime beauty to lure settler immigration. Local educators and businessmen coined and publicized the “Hokkaidō Alps,” aiming to rival the iconic Japanese Alps. Newspapers and alpine clubs organized mountaineering tours, marketing the mountain as an accessible leisure destination for everyone. Meanwhile, the Imperial Japanese Army stationed there framed their expeditions as arduous journeys to a sacred summit that allegedly embodied the Japanese spirit.

Despite their diversity, these narratives shared two key features. First, they asserted territorial dominance by recasting Mt. Asahidake through modern scientific and romantic notions of sublimity, supplanting Ainu presence and belief. The settlers transformed the mountain into a symbol of Japanese imperial identity. Second, they reflected Hokkaidō’s peripheral position within Japan and sought to elevate its status by equating Mt. Asahidake with the Japanese Alps. This paper argues that under imperial contexts, mountains were not merely spaces of conquest but also footholds for peripheral regions to assert prominence of their place within the empire.