Sakuta TAKEFUSHI

After attending the Iiyama Junior High School, Sakuta Takefushi studied at the Waseda University and graduated in 1929 from its School of Commerce. At the Japanese Championships, he won the relay title with the Waseda team in 1925 and 1926. Back in Japan, he investigated new ski and waxing materials and published a manual in 1930. After his graduation, he joined the Tokyo newspaper Nichi Nichi Shimbun (now Mainichi Shimbun) as a journalist. He was also known as an excellent mountaineer, who joined Japan’s first expedition to the Himalayas in 1936 which made the first successful ascent of the Nanda Kot peak. He also was a member of the crew of the first and second Manaslu-Expeditions 1952-54. Between 1949-54 Takefushi was chairman of the Japanese Ski Federation. He retired in 1959 but still held a post for the promotion of tourism, and wrote several mountaineering books.