Eighty-Two Days on Mt. Fuji

In the winter of 1895, Nonaka Chiyoko and her husband Itaru undertook an extraordinary experiment: They held out for twelve weeks atop Mt. Fuji, battling storms, sickness, and isolation in order to record meteorological data. Later celebrated in novels, films, and television dramas, their feat was first immortalized in Chiyoko’s own lively and incisive diary, now available in English translation for the first time. Eighty-Two Days on Mt. Fuji presents Chiyoko’s complete journal, complemented by selected writings by her husband, situating the couple’s endeavor within the emerging scientific culture of Meiji Japan. Chiyoko, the daughter of a Noh master, defied convention and climbed the snowbound peak in secret to join her husband in the summit hut, leaving her infant daughter behind. Her diary captures not only the relentless physical demands of observation but also moments of wit, resilience, and even delight amid the mountain’s harsh winter solitude. For scholars of Meiji history, women’s writing, Japanese science and modernity, and the global traditions of mountaineering and travel literature, Eighty-Two Days offers a rare first-person account of endurance, devotion, and discovery. It illuminates the entwined histories of science and the expected roles of women in late nineteenth-century Japan, while also standing as a classic work of adventure literature in its own right. Read more