About Us
Thank you for visiting this website. These online archives present images and written materials that document, in digital form, the lives of Nonaka Itaru and his wife Chiyoko, who established and operated a meteorological observatory on Mt Fuji in the winter of 1895.
The archives respond to the widespread interest, particularly in historical matters, that has attended the activities of the NPO Mt Fuji Weather Station. Originally known as the NPO for the Valid Utilization of the Mt Fuji Weather Station, this non-profit organization was established in November 2005 to carry on the long tradition of scientific work on Japan’s highest mountain.
The NPO initiative followed the closure of the Japan Meteorological Agency’s manned weather station on Mt Fuji in September 2004, which brought to an end 72 years of continuous manned meteorological observations from the summit.
In 2017, via a grant-making organization, members of the NPO had the good fortune to be introduced to Mr Nonaka Masaru and Mrs Kageyama Sachiko, the grandchildren of Nonaka Itaru and Chiyoko, who kindly provided us with a large number of images, including unpublished materials.
While organizing the images, we realised that several literary and film works feature the Nonakas’ sojourn on Mt Fuji, of which the best known is probably the novel Fuyo no Hito (1975) by Nitta Jiro, the pen name of Fujiwara Hiroto, a former head of the Japan Meteorological Agency’s instrumentation section. Of course, all of these works contain fictional elements, as we have appreciated from our conversations with the descendant families and the researches of NPO member Yamamoto Akira and others.
A case in point is the fate of Sonoko, the Nonakas’ eldest daughter. In “Fuyo no hito”, it is suggested that she died in Fukuoka at the age of two while her parents were on the summit on Mt Fuji. But, in fact, she died several years later, at the age of seven. In the same novel, it is suggested that Nonaka Chiyoko’s application to join the Meteorological Society of Japan was rejected. Yet it appears that, in reality, her application was accepted as soon as she climbed Mt Fuji to join her husband at the summit observatory, and thus she helped to make weather observations as a member of the Society.
Thus, one reason why these archives were established is to underpin the importance of documentary evidence in historical research, and also to set the record straight where it may have been influenced by novels or other works of fiction. So the archives commemorate the achievements of Nonaka Itaru and Chiyoko, as documented in the artefacts received from their descendants.
The Nonaka Itaru and Chiyoko Archives1 website was launched in August 2019 with photographs and documents drawn and interpreted from the material we had acquired the previous year. These efforts were greatly facilitated by the research and discussions of the members of the Fuyō-Nikki Society2, named for the diary published by Nonaka Chiyoko, who are associated with the NPO and have been working together since the end of 2018. We would like to note that the Heibonsha edition of Nonaka Itaru’s Fuji Annai and Chiyoko’s Fuyō-Nikki edited by Ohmori Hisao3, one of our members, has been a primary reference in this initiative, serving as a basis for many of the chronologies and commentaries in these archives.
A large amount of material has yet to be made public. We are continuing our research and will gradually publish the very considerable documentation that has been entrusted to us by the descendants of the Nonaka family, in order to further expand and enrich these archives.
We hope that this website will help as many people as possible to learn about Nonaka Itaru and Chiyoko, as meteorological pioneers, and to rediscover the value of Mt Fuji’s summit for high-altitude weather and scientific observations.
1 The kanji 到 was used to record Nonaka Itaru’s given name in the official household registry, although the form 至 is also widely seen in published materials. Similarly, his wife Chiyoko’s name is given as チヨ (Chiyo) in the household registry, and not as the more widely used 千代子 (Chiyoko). Following discussions with the Nonaka family, we have decided to adopt the forms of 至 and 千代子 for consistent use through these archives. However, 到 is also used in this archive when necessary or appropriate.
2 The Fuyō-Nikki Society is an informal group of individuals and researchers with an interest in the history of meteorological observation at the summit of Mt Fuji, particularly the pioneering achievements of Nonaka Itaru and Chiyoko. Their activities are supported by the NPO Mt Fuji Weather Station.
The membership of the Fuyō-Nikki Society includes (in no particular order): Ohmori Hisao (NPO member, literary editor, the Japanese Alpine Club member), Horii Masako (NPO vice president, doctor), Sato Masahiro (NPO auditor, former director of the JMA Mt Fuji Weather Station), Ōbushi Harumi (NPO member, professor emeritus at Tokushima Bunri University, researcher of Japanese literature), Yamamoto Akira (former senior researcher of the Meteorological Research Institute), Mizoguchi Katsumi (retired junior high school principal), Martin Hood (translator of One Hundred Mountains of Japan, Academic Alpine Club of Zurich), Harumi Hood (English educator), Nakayama Yoshio (NPO member, webmaster). Contact person: Dokiya Yukiko (NPO director, public relations committee, atmospheric chemist) (as of 30 June 2020).
3 Published in Japanese as 富士案内 芙蓉日記 (平凡社ライブラリー) 野中 至 (著), 野中 千代子 (著), 大森 久雄 (編集), 2006.