Japan's highest mountain is of course Mt. Fuji (3,776 m). That the second is Mt. Kitadake in the Southern Alps (3,192 m) and the third Mt. Oku-Hotaka in the Northern Alps (3,190 m) is common knowledge even among non-mountaineers.
Boldly challenging this received wisdom was Jūtarō Imada (1898–1993), called "father of Hotaka exploration." In 1924, still in the Taishō era, Imada built the Hotaka Hut for just twenty people at the col between Mt. Oku-Hotaka and Mt. Karasawa (2,996 m). Later, hoping many climbers could ascend safely, he opened the "Jūtarō New Route" from Kamikōchi to the Hotaka range—via Karasawa Hut to Mae-Hotaka, then along the suspended ridge toward Oku-Hotaka. Kimiko-daira near the Mae-Hotaka trailhead is named for his daughter.
As climbers increased in the 1950s, Hotaka Hut was expanded to hold more than a hundred and renamed Hotakadake Sansō. Straddling the Gifu–Nagano border, the lodge is swept by strong winds from the Hida side but was also an early adopter of wind power.
What galled Jūtarō was Mt. Oku-Hotaka ranking third by a mere two meters. "Fuji is unbeatable. But I will somehow pass Kitadake and make Oku-Hotaka second in Japan." He began piling a cairn on the summit—one meter, two meters, until the present three-meter giant cairn, topped by a small Oku-Hotaka Shrine. The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan regrettably does not count the cairn toward elevation; every map still reads 3,190 m. Yet Jūtarō seems to have believed he had surpassed Kitadake and that Oku-Hotaka was Japan's second-highest peak.
A phrase he often repeated was "My life is owed to Hotaka." His son now follows in his footsteps, still living a life tied to Hotaka.
Bus tours to Mt. Hotaka and Mt. Yarigatake depart from Mainichi Travel on basement level 1 of Palaceside Building.