Career Highlights

  • Floatin V16/8C+ FA (Mt.Mizugaki)

  • United V16/8C+ FA (Mt.Mizugaki)

  • Nexus V16/8C+ FA (Shiobara)

  • Livin’ Large V16/8C+ (Rocklands)

  • The Game V15/8C (Colorado)

  • Dreamtime V15/8C (Cresciano)

  • The story of two worlds V15/8C (Cresciano)

  • In search of time lost V15/8C (Magicwood)

  • Monkey Wedding V15/8C (Rocklands)

  • Spray of light V15/8C (Rocklands)

  • Melange 5.14c (Mt.Ogawa)

    Interview

    • Climbing

      When and how did you get into climbing? What keeps you interested? What fascinates you?

      At first, I went to a climbing gym as part of my training for mountaineering, which I often did with my father, but gradually I became more into climbing and shifted gears. I started climbing seriously when I was around 10 years old, mainly competing until I graduated from high school, and after entering university, I began to take an interest in outdoor climbing and my activities expanded.

      The appeal of climbing is that the sense of accomplishment you feel when you succeed on a route you have focused on is indescribable. In addition, the process of success is also very interesting. Climbing requires completely different techniques and thinking for each route you attempt, so you have to apply your own logic and trial and error each time. Therefore, I think that one of the real pleasures of climbing is the process of gradually coming to be able to handle things that were completely impossible at the beginning by gradually combining pieces.

      Who was your childhood hero and do you consider yourself a role model now? Does it influence you at all that other people look up to you?

      I used to watch outdoor climbing DVDs from overseas with my friends when I was a kid, and Chris Sharma and Daniel Woods were climbers that I admired (although I didn't have much outdoor climbing experience at that time). I liked their strong physicality and full-body climbing style, and there was a time when I tried to emulate that style of climbing, but I have now developed my own style of climbing and will continue to do so in the future. If I am a role model for others, I am very happy to be one, but I hope that everyone else will also value the good qualities that they have in themselves.

      What have been the most important milestones in your life so far, both in climbing and in everyday life? And did you recognize them immediately as such or only later on?

      My biggest milestone was my Rocklands tour when I was 22 years old. This was my first overseas tour. At the time, I was close to graduating from university, and I was considering joining a general company, but this tour changed my course drastically. After returning home from South Africa, I couldn't get that view of endless rock formations out of my head, and my desire to see more of the world and test my climbing skills grew stronger, so I decided to work in the climbing industry, where it was easier to take long vacations. Since then, with the support of many people, I have visited climbing areas around the world such as Bishop, Magic Woods, and Colorado to challenge myself with hard lines. If I hadn't visited Rocklands, I wouldn't have known about these worlds, so that tour was a really valuable experience that changed my outlook on life.

      What were your greatest failures / setbacks / injuries? How did you cope with them and how did you come back from them?

      I have now been climbing for about 18 years and have been fortunate enough to have never had a particularly serious injury. However, there have been a few times when I have injured my finger tendons after climbing hard projects. In the longest cases, it took more than six months to fully heal, and I was often frustrated because I could not climb as much as I wanted to while my fingers were injured. As a response to such a situation, I tried to focus on what I could do at that time and focus on strengthening it. I was training with an awareness of gripping without bending my fingers as much as possible, like in “Open Hand”, while trying not to do “Crimp”. When I am injured or have limited movement, I try not to be too pessimistic and see it as a chance to overcome something I am not good at, such as training something I don't normally do.

    • Training

      Do you have a strict training schedule for when and how you train throughout the year?

      I don't have a strict training schedule, but I do have a rough schedule, because in outdoor climbing, the best season for each boulder problem (or boulder area) I want to try is different. After the order of boulder problems to try is decided, I train the techniques and physicals required for each.

      What advice can you give to others looking to improve their training routine?

      I believe that you can improve the quality of your training by training with a purpose rather than just training recklessly. If you have a target route, clarify what your weaknesses are and what you need to improve on among the techniques and physicals required for that route, and be conscious of focusing on those. And the important thing is to keep doing it. Results are not immediate. If you train without a purpose, you will gradually lose the motivation to continue.

       

      What do you think of indoor climbing gyms in relation to climbing on actual rock?

      For me, the climbing gym is an essential training ground for climbing hard rock projects. The texture of the hold and the shape of the wall are different from the real thing, but the way to grip the holds and the movements can be reproduced close to it. Sometimes, training is done by creating simulation problems that assume the lines of the actual crag. In recent years, climbing gyms have become conscious of the competition scene, and I have the impression that they are changing to something different from outdoor climbing, but I feel that this point is also useful for outdoor climbing. The abilities and inventiveness required for huge volumes and tricky dynamic moves are not often obtained from outdoor climbing, but on the contrary, I believe that these abilities have a good chance to make projects solvable. In this sense, climbing gyms are indispensable.

      Are you able to do a one-arm pull-up? How about a single finger?

      Both can be done.

    • Psychology

      Is it possible for anybody to eventually perform a one-armed pull-up or get to the top of the Eiger/Matterhorn, or do you really have to be born for it?

      Certainly, due to genetics, the path to achieving a goal is short for some and long for others, but I believe it is possible for everyone. However, I believe that everyone can achieve their goals, provided that they are highly motivated and have the ability to continue to work hard every day.

      How important is it to set goals in professional sports? What are your goals? What targets are you working towards for your climbing and in life?

      Having the right goals will give you clarity about what you need to do and motivation to keep going. Furthermore, setting goals makes it easier to recognize whether you are making progress or stagnating and how far you have come.

      My current goal is simply to get stronger. My short-term goal is to climb more V16, and my long-term goal is to establish V17 in Japan. Looking further ahead, I have a bigger goal of becoming one of the climbers pushing the limits of modern bouldering. I am very interested to see how far mankind can evolve in the act of climbing walls. And I am excited to see what the limits we push will look like in 10, 20 years, and beyond, and how easily future climbers will rewrite them.

      How do you deal with extremely hard climbing problems? Do you ever get frustrated and give up on them? Or do they motivate you even more?

      When I am faced with an extremely hard challenge, I consider whether I should tackle it now or put it off until later.

      I first try out each individual move and try to figure out what is causing the inability. If the cause is something that I can handle with my current ability, such as grip or foot position, then I focus on that problem. Conversely, if it seems too difficult for my current abilities, I will put it on the back burner and work on other projects first.

      If my goals are extremely far from what I can handle, it becomes unclear what I need to do, and it becomes difficult to maintain motivation to work on them. Therefore, when tackling hard problems, I prioritize them and start with the ones that seem most likely, so that I can easily maintain my motivation and gradually build up my skills. By taking such steps, when I come back to a problem that I used to find extremely hard, the feeling is often completely different.

    • Future of climbing

      Is there anything you would like to change about current developments in climbing?

      Currently in Japan, the focus tends to be on indoor climbing in gyms and competitions, but as someone who mainly focuses on outdoor climbing, I would like to further develop this field as well. Although what I can do as an individual is limited, I would like to convey the appeal of climbing in contact with nature to as many climbers as possible by focusing on developing new lines at crags and communicating on SNS. If more climbers visit the crag, they will purchase more products in the surrounding area, which I believe will lead to the revitalization of the local community.

      Where do you see the sport going in the next years, what will change and what is your role going to be in it?

      I believe that sport climbing will continue to grow and the number of people competing will increase. While this will bring great benefits to the industry as a whole, it also raises some concerns. In particular, the outdoor climbing has many problems, such as access issues, trash issues, and community relations, and these concerns could grow as the climbing population increases. My role is to share the manners and rules for these issues with more climbers and to create a sustainable environment.