The purpose of this study is to clarify a formative period of the two local branches of the Japanese Alpine Club (JAC) and the Hokkaido Alpine Association (Sangaku Renmei) in Hokkaido regarding the concept of nature conservation. It was the JAC which reconstructed the mountaineering society after World War Ⅱ in Japan. There was antagonism over the participation in Japan Sports Association, the leadership of the National Sports Festival (Kokutai) and the other policies of the activities, between JAC and Zen-Nihon-Sangaku-Renmei (national mountain federations). It indicates that the formation of a new organisation, the union of the former bodies and re-organisation were implemented in a short period. In addition, this process was a preparational period to host the Hokkaido National Sports Festival and the 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympic Games. Furthermore, according to Kindai-Nihon-Tozanshi (modern Japanese mountaineering history) (1969) and Centurian history of JAC (2007), the JAC respected a mountaineering philosophy based on the belief derived from natural history and the concept of nature conservation since its initiation in the pre-war period, and there was an ideological difference in mountaineering between ‘inheritance of traditional mountaineering culture’ and‘ group mountaineering (competitive mountaineering)’. These arguments were within the direction of the idea of conservation nature. Therefore, the first part of this paper reveals the context of the formation of each organization using commemorative journals published by the JAC, the Japan Mountaineering Association, the Hokkaido Branch of the JAC, the Hokkaido Alpine Association (Sangaku Renmei), the Hokkaido Sports Association and the bulletin published by the JAC. Next, this research analysed the contents of the articles in the above-mentioned resources, focussing on the formation, union, dissolution and reorganization of the Hokkaido Branch of the JAC and of the Hokkaido Alpine Association. In addition, the contents analysed in the previous section in chronological order were reorganised into the policies of each organisation based on the believed benefits of the mountain. In conclusion the Hokkaido branch of JAC took a profound view of mountaineering culture, and the Hokkaido Alpine Association embraced mountaineering as competitive sports. Furthermore, in arguing on conservation or group mountaineering (competitive mountaineering),‘ the benefits of the mountains’ were the key issue of organisational conflict and reorganization.
Y Yamamura (2025) studied this question.