The Mountains of Hakone

The Mountains of Hakone

By Hidemitsu Tanaka

Morning light was shining on Hakone path. Two-layered mawashi worn by me symbolized wealth as my height of 6x *shaku. I was with my son which hand I pulled, his name’s Ichiro, who would be six year was barely 3x shaku and went to the road with the frost column\ *needle ice .

Thirty of December, it is eighteenth year* of the Showa era and, using my days off in the end of it, I was staying at Hakone Yumoto’s spring inn. The day before I used as time to spend with Ichiro, took an up-train (on mountain railway) from Yumoto to the Gora and took a car, after that I took a bus from Mountain Soun through Owakudani to Kojiri, ate two bowls of suiton* by myself, bought a tangerine and got into a motorboat. And first-graders from an elementary school nearby cheerfully shined with their happy, dirty faces while their teacher who looked like a boy in national clothes explained something to them. As I arrived at Motohakone, I ate meal there and visited Hakone shrine. After that, I came back to Yumoto by bus.

All of this had its reason in the look in Ichiro’s eyes that were shining with majesty of a mountain he saw for the very first time. Even though I told him that he was climbing a mountain in a cable car, he still could not comprehend that he did really climb it. The color of his eyes that changed when he saw Ashinoko Lake、he clapped his hands and let out “Yay! It is a sea! A sea!” even though I, as a father, would tell him the difference between a sea and a lake. Therefore, the next day, as I planned, I would let him climb the mountain by his very own feet. Moreover, I myself wanted to take a walk on some of the most difficult mountain roads of Hakone Hachiri that were told to be the hardest in Hakone Hachiri shoku* and “Fifty three stations of Tokaido road”*.

Then I looked at a kid. “Hey, let’s climb this mountain” – I said.
”Yeah, let’s climb-climb!” “It’s a very high mountain, I think I can climb”, “Ok! I can climb too!”. “I surely can climb…” I repeated, as it was some kind of mantra, because I was not sure at all if I really could climb. I was wearing wooden clogs and I had a worry for Ichiro’s young legs. Also, I was born and raised in a trashy town called Chousen in Kenson, Joseon* and moved to Tokio. Finally, a year after, I was a man-child that has never left Kitazawa of Setagaya, an ordinary suburban town. So therefore, I wished to embrace the beauty of Japanese mountains

And the child himself, who was only five, has finally felt a wonder in what he sees, hears and feels. Surely, he was shocked and surprised by the size of a universe surrounding us even the day before we decided to climb. When you are a child and you see the dazzling shiny sun and moving cloud shadows on the green mountains or the cream-beige brilliance of distant peaks, you cannot help but exclaim, “That’s beautiful!” I wanted to give him a taste of that wonder again, even though I did not feel it like he did. My plan was to have him traverse the highway even though we would not reach the top. And with an extremely easygoing manner asking me to eat and wandering home, I led Ichiro by the hand and climbed through the pine trees toward the mountains of Hakone.

In fact, like my father, I have memories of my childhood in the mountains of Hakone. Between my passed father and mom, there was a dispute, after which the whole family went to Tozawa. I was somewhat the same age as Ichiro and I still do remember a night, when I needed to go to pee and woke up alone. Then I saw the gigantic outline of the pitch-black mountains that I saw from the toilet window. I was amazed and terrified by such beauty, which felt petrifying and still. The stars shone with the same cold silence above these stone giants and chill ran down my spine.

But feeling that Ichiro experienced was not a terror. It was a sorrow of a young soul. A sorrow for sunshine, shining beige mountains which were like a surprise to him he discovered. I was enticed and amused to think whether he’d went to the natural sciences or the humanities after he grew up, it would be a precious memory for him he’d keep. And the day before, I had found food in Kojiri and Moto-Hakone so I assumed that I would be able to easily find a meal somewhere that day.

The first thing that catching my eye was a landscape with ancient pine trees which were considered hundred years long, like on pictures of Hiroshige and Hokusai, towering in the blue sky with giant dragons occupying it. However, the pine trees soon became mottled and between them there were only westernized villas of wealthy people and straw-roofed houses happening to be commercial-half-farmer-like-landowners’ houses. Ichiro even said “Dad, let’s climb this mountain! Conquer this mountain!” “It’s not a mountain” – I said. “ It’s a road.”

I bent down, raised my double sleeves and put my fists in front of Ichiro’s eyes. I extended my fingers and told him to look at the tips of his fingers. At the tip of my finger, the double peaks of Futagoyama were drowning in the bright sunlight on half of my body, giving it a dreamy yellow color. “If you follow this road, you will reach the top of that mountain. Interesting, can Ichiro walk?” – I asked playfully. “I can climb it!” – He answered.

“I am sure.” A smile appeared on my face.

“Woo…”

At first, it was a basic conversation about mountains and we, as parent and a child, started to walk around. Next to the mottled pine trees, a post town seemingly had no name yet with houses in a jumbling row surrounding it. But before we saw it we visited a Buddhist temple or even the precincts of the historical temple of Katsugoro Hatsuhana out of simple curiosity. I pulled Ichiro’s hand slightly and said, “Look up and down” but it seemed like he was already tired of walking and he said “Father, the mountain is still here.”

“Yeah, gradually. But, Ichiro, it is also a mountain that we are walking like this. See, the road would be getting higher and higher. That is why it is a mountain.”

“There are a lot of houses and it is not a mountain, not a town either.”

“No-no, it’s another thing…” – I felt indescribable frustration, but when I looked up, the post town had already disappeared long ago and the evergreens of mountains were still emerald-bright. “Hey, look, there is no house anymore. There are only trees and grass. So it is a mountain, isn’t it?”

“It really is!” – Ichiro exclaimed, impressed by such statement.

With the exception of those who have passed, both the right and the left. Mountains and mountains, immediately in front with the flow of Hayakawa River shining at the bottom of the valley. The trees grow so dense that the left cannot see the top; the leaves of bamboo are bright blue. And gently meandering white road leads to the foggy glow of the distant green alleys with golden-capped dazzle of the nearby mountain peaks.

“The Hakone Mountains are dangerous and a pass of its Mountain is dangerous too” I had no choice but to say. “I look forward to the future of meeting a peak of it; I will not be able to pass. So I am only slightly confident in the previous ways of mine.”