Katō Noriyoshi and American Environmental Thought

In a 2000 issue of the Japanese publication Outdoor Magazine, Katō wrote an extended feature on long trails throughout Japan. This page featured aspects of community, history, and people that represent Katō’s vision of a long trail.

Noriyoshi Katō. Mori no Seija, Shizen Hogo no Chichi: Jon Myūa [Forest Saint, Father of Conservation: John Muir]. Image used with permission from 山と渓谷社 (Yama to Keikokusha).

“One day, a hippie-looking man came by…” is the way Katō is often described by people in the encounter that triggered his involvement with the Shinetsu Trail. Katō is not entirely unlike this description; while studying at Waseda University during the 1970s, he was part of the counterculture movement against consumerism, environmental degradation, and other social and political ills that emerged out of Japan’s postwar period of strong growth. It was in this period that Katō’s interest in backpacking and awareness of American outdoor culture began to emerge, such as his interest in nature writer and wilderness preservationist John Muir.

Katō’s interest in Muir and the U.S. National Park System was rooted in the lack of awareness for Japan’s National Park System, overshadowed by World Heritage sites. Katō was drawn to long trails as a way of exploring and understanding new places and their environments, people, history, and culture—qualities that are lived in the experience of hiking the Appalachian Trail.

When Katō visited Iiyama in 1987, he was already hiking and writing about long trails as an emerging idea in Japan. He visited Iiyama to learn more about its beech tree protection movement and happened to encounter individuals who were working on the trail project that the mayor had proposed through the green tourism initiative. Once they learned about Katō’s experience hiking long trails and his familiarity with American trail systems, he was asked to be part of the venture to create the Shinetsu Trail.

Katō recognized the importance of the term kokuritsu kōen, or national park, to be in Japan’s national consciousness in order to ensure a natural environment’s maintenance and preservation. In 1992, Katō visited Sequoia National Park to research the U.S. National Park System and do his own nature writing. In addition to writing a biography of John Muir and translating several of his texts, Katō thru-hiked the John Muir Trail in 1995 as well.

Beyond Muir, Katō had a unique familiarity with the history of American nature conservation and environmental philosophy, as evidenced by one of his bookshelves.