One day when I reached my forties I began, for no clear reason, to be absorbed by mountains, and as if obsessed I started climbing; before a year had gone by I had climbed dozens of peaks. Why was I so fascinated? I do not know the exact reason, yet I cannot help thinking that my desire to experience mountains has to do with the view of nature and religion that has been imbued in the Japanese from times of old. I was looking for the mountain.