How Japan’s Mountain Lovers Created a National Holiday
Roughly three-quarters of Japan is mountainous. Its peaks have supplied water to cities and rice fields, timber to build them and, for centuries, places to worship the gods believed to inhabit the landscape. Mountains appear everywhere from ukiyo-e prints and pilgrimage routes to the skylines of modern cities. Even from central Tokyo, Mount Fuji still […] The post How Japan’s Mountain Lovers…
Japan, a country that is roughly three-quarters mountainous, has a relatively new national holiday dedicated to its mountainous landscape. Known as Mountain Day, it was officially recognized in 2014 and celebrated for the first time on August 11, 2016. The holiday's inception, however, can be traced back to people who simply loved mountains, not the government.
Individual prefectures in mountainous regions such as Yamanashi and Gifu held informal observances years before the idea reached the national level. In 2010, this local activity evolved into an organized campaign led by mountaineering associations, now part of the Japan Mountaineering and Sports Climbing Association. These associations formed a coalition to push for a national holiday, and in 2013, a group of lawmakers took up the cause.
The amendment to Japan’s Public Holiday Law was submitted on March 28, 2014, and it was passed by both houses of the Diet. The chosen date, August 11, was selected for its symbolic representation of mountains (the kanji for eight resembles a mountain peak, and 11 resembles two standing trees) and to fill the gap in the calendar as there were no holidays in June or August. The date was selected carefully to avoid overlap with other important dates, such as the anniversary of the 1985 Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash.
Despite being a young holiday, Mountain Day formalizes a relationship with the mountains that has played a significant role in shaping Japan for centuries. Today, it may be easy to overlook as it merges into the summer holidays surrounding Obon. However, the story behind this date reflects the deep connection between the Japanese people and their mountainous environment.
Written by urgent.news from Tokyo Weekender's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
