Naoki Ishikawa (石川 直樹, Ishikawa Naoki; b. Tokyo, 1977) is a Japanese photographer and mountaineer. He has climbed all…Naoki Ishikawa (石川 直樹, Ishikawa Naoki; b. Tokyo, 1977) is a Japanese photographer and mountaineer. He has climbed all 14 eight-thousanders and the seven summits. In 2001, he began to take photographs seriously and thereafter his ventures as a photographer and writer have intimately linked to his travels and climbs, as he often photographs and writes about his own adventures to various remote landscapes. Ishikawa's analog photographs frequently capture nature at its most extreme and the people that inhabit it, gaining a broad recognition for his ethnographic sensibility and curiosity, informed by his study of anthropology and ethnography at Waseda University. Ishikawa actively participates in the education of photography and anthropology; he has served as a part-time lecturer at the Faculty of Sociology at Rikkyo University and the Photography department of Nihon University and is currently the director of the Photo Archipelago Setouchi school.
Yasuko Namba (難波 康子, Nanba Yasuko; February 7, 1949 – May 11, 1996) was the second Japanese woman (after Junko Tabei)…Yasuko Namba (難波 康子, Nanba Yasuko; February 7, 1949 – May 11, 1996) was the second Japanese woman (after Junko Tabei) to climb the Seven Summits. Namba worked as a businesswoman for FedEx in Japan, but her hobby of mountaineering took her all over the world. She first summited Kilimanjaro on New Year's Day in 1982, and summited Aconcagua exactly two years later. She reached the summit of Denali on July 1, 1985, and the summit of Mount Elbrus on August 1, 1992. After summiting Vinson Massif on December 29, 1993, and Carstensz Pyramid on November 12, 1994, Namba's final summit to reach was Mount Everest. She signed on with Rob Hall's guiding company, Adventure Consultants, and reached the summit in May 1996, but died during her descent in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster.
Michiko Imai (今井通子) (born 1 February 1942) is a Japanese medical doctor, mountaineer and alpinist. She is notable for…Michiko Imai (今井通子) (born 1 February 1942) is a Japanese medical doctor, mountaineer and alpinist. She is notable for making the first all-female ascent of the north face of the Matterhorn, and for being the only female member of the Japanese team of mountaineers who established the Japanese Direct alpine climbing route on the north face of the Eiger. She was also the first Japanese woman to scale all of the three great north faces of the Alps (the Matterhorn, the Eiger, and the Grandes Jorasses), and has been credited as the first woman in the world to have achieved that.
Ichiro Yoshizawa (吉沢 一郎, Yoshizawa Ichirō; 1903–1998) was a Japanese mountaineer and expedition leader. He graduated…Ichiro Yoshizawa (吉沢 一郎, Yoshizawa Ichirō; 1903–1998) was a Japanese mountaineer and expedition leader. He graduated from Hitotsubashi University. Among other expeditions, in 1977 he led the second successful attempt to reach the summit of K2, which saw six Japanese climbers and one Pakistani summiting on August 8-9. Yoshizawa became a member of the Japanese Alpine Club in 1925 and became vice president in 1972; he was also a member of foreign clubs like The Alpine Club.
Hisayoshi Takeda (武田 久吉, Takeda Hisayoshi; March 2, 1883 – June 7, 1972) was a Japanese botanist whose father was the…Hisayoshi Takeda (武田 久吉, Takeda Hisayoshi; March 2, 1883 – June 7, 1972) was a Japanese botanist whose father was the British diplomat Sir Ernest Satow. He was a founder of the Japanese Natural History Society, and is known for his campaign to preserve the environment at Oze, which is now Oze National Park.