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"As I took photographs of beech trees and other flora deep in the mountains, I felt increasingly in touch with the natural world."
I used to really love the mountains, and at one point I belonged to a mountaineering club. In my twenties, I trained hard to climb mountains overseas by routes that had never been taken before, and having discovered new routes to peaks in Japan, I was quite well known as an alpinist. In 1996, although already working for a company, I joined the "R.C.C. II Caucasus Expedition," which set out to climb the southern face of Mount Dykhtau in the Caucasus Mountains. Taking the direct route to the top, we succeeded in becoming the first Japanese to reach the summit. I was still interested in photography, of course, and took my camera with me to record the event, but I never thought I'd eventually become a professional photographer. When I returned to Japan after the expedition, though, I found I couldn't forget the excitement of being in the mountains, and that I would never be happy working in an office again. That was basically the reason I became a freelance photographer, first taking pictures of rock climbers, and getting them published in mountaineering and other magazines.
For a time I also photographed plants and microscopic subjects for encyclopedias and illustrated reference books. As it happened, I was asked by the famous ethologist, Professor Toshitaka Hidaka of the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, to give somebody a chance in this photographic field. That person eventually became a well-known insect photographer. Although diverging slightly, I'd also like to mention that it was me who suggested to the late Yasuo Katoh that he take an OM-1 with him on his Everest expedition in 1973. Together with the other members of the Olympus team, he reached the summit.
So I was always involved with nature in some way. But it was when I visited Chokaizan that I experienced it in new depth. As I took photographs of beech trees and other flora deep in the mountains, I felt increasingly in touch with the natural world.
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