Katsumi

I am a local guide in Kumano and also a certified JMGA mountain guide. Being in the mountains and in the nature has always been my passion - trekking in the hills and mountains of the Kansai region in my childhood, riding bikes around Australia for 3 years in my youth, and am very passionate about different activities related to the mountains such as kayaking, rafting, backcountry skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, mountaineering and rock climbing. I’ve done numerous white water river kayaking and sea kayaking in New Zealand and in the US, and have done some first descents too.

I started my mountain career at a Japanese outdoors gear company, Montbell, then started my own outdoors gear brand called Finetrack in 2004. But I then wanted to become the actual connection between people and the nature, and also through my experiences abroad, I wanted to be able to communicate the wonders of Japanese nature to the world directly and thus became a mountain guide myself.

Japan is bombarded by the rigor of the nature. We have volcanoes, are right in the middle of the paths of numerous hurricanes, and rugged mountains forming at the edges of tectonic plates. These have been treated as sacred places in Japanese ancient beliefs and religions. I am also a practitioner of Buddhism “Shugendo” (ancient mountain worship) and am a certified “Sendatsu” - trainer of Shugendo (aka mountain priest). I’d like to be able to tell you these stories so that you can better understand and ‘feel' the Japanese nature through history and culture. It interesting to me that these mountains, rivers and the sea is not just a part of the nature but has always been the subject of faith.

Contact me if you’re interested in learning more about the mountain worship culture and to join me on a trek of Kumano with a lot of background stories!