Naoki Ishikawa, why do you continue to go on adventures?

I want to get off the "track" and see it with my own eyes

"I rewatched a documentary I appeared in 25 years ago when I was 23, and in the interview I said, 'I'm not an 'adventurer,'" he said. "I could be accepted as an 'adventurer,' but that attitude hasn't changed at all."

In 2000, a TV program aired capturing a young Naoki Ishikawa skiing, kayaking, and cycling across the globe from the North Pole to the Antarctic with a group of young people from seven countries. At the time, he was already widely regarded as an "adventurer." The following year, he became the youngest person (at the time) to summit the highest peaks on all seven continents, which likely contributed to furthering this perception.

It is well known that over the years and years of his extensive work, Ishikawa has established himself as a photographer and earned recognition for his achievements. However, the news that he successfully climbed Shishapangma in the Himalayas last October, completing his stint on all 14 8,000m peaks, was enough to make us reconsider the distance between his activities and the concept of "adventure."

"Of course, I've always had a desire for adventure and exploration. Ever since I was little, I loved reading, and I read adventure stories like 'Robinson Crusoe' and 'Tom Sawyer', as well as books about the Seven Wonders of the World, the Yeti, the Mayan civilization, lost continents, and the mysteries of the universe... I wanted to know about places no one had ever been to, things no one knew about, and see them with my own eyes. I guess it's the kind of thing any child would be interested in."

It may be normal for children to dream of adventure, but the intensity of that dream seems to have been a little, or rather quite, different for young Ishikawa.

"During the winter break of my second year of junior high school, I was so inspired by reading Ryoma ga Yuku by Shiba Ryotaro that I traveled alone to Kochi to visit the grave of Sakamoto Ryoma. To me, Ryoma's life itself felt adventurous. A challenging way of life, stepping outside the box to do new things, walking where there were no tracks. I loved reading books like that, and through it I learned about backpacking, and in my second year of high school I went to India and Nepal. It may sound cliched, but I was shocked to see elephants walking on the road and dead bodies floating down the Ganges River, and at the same time I became strongly attracted to travel."

Adventure, or "going off the rails." What was the source of this appeal for a young man who grew up in a "stable, ordinary salaryman family" living in Tokyo?

"Hmm, I don't know... I just had a strong rebellious spirit towards power and authority. I wanted to stop living unconditionally on the rails laid out by politicians and teachers. That may have been due to my innate temperament, but the books I was reading may have had a big influence on me.

In particular, Noda Tomosuke's writing was extremely provocative. After graduating from university, he chose not to get a job but to travel by canoe. He strongly challenges the reader, saying, "This is how I live my life; how do you live your life?" and I took that directly to heart."

Seized by this "provocation," Ishikawa, then a high school student, rushed into the scene of a protest against the construction of a dam at the mouth of the Nagara River (Mie Prefecture), which Noda was working on at the time. It was Ishikawa's first encounter with a real "adventurer."

"I went there wearing my school uniform, so Noda noticed and asked me what I was doing, and that's how we started interacting. I was told to go to university, so I enrolled at Waseda University, but I neglected my classes and headed to Canada. A senior student told me, 'If you're going down the Yukon River, make sure you take proper safety precautions,' but I rebelled, saying, 'Is that really true? Noda's book says you can go down the Yukon River even while sleeping,' so I carried my canoe and went alone. When you're told things without thinking, you immediately have doubts."

Some people say, "So what?" But I really do it to survive.

Turning your back on the "main road" and searching for your own path is a kind of critical spirit, and at the same time, it can sometimes lead to deviation from the values of mainstream society. Ishikawa, who had gone on to graduate school and begun working in photography and writing, was given a glimpse into this world by a man named Michio Kanda, who was old enough to be a father to him.

Kanda, who had continued to challenge himself to long-distance flights and mountain crossings in balloons, disappeared at sea in 2008 after attempting to cross the Pacific Ocean alone in a homemade hot air balloon. Ishikawa titled his book, which vividly describes the adventurer he witnessed up close, "The Last Adventurer."

"Kanda was a man who was willing to risk his life in order to truly burn out his life. There was a contradiction there: 'In order to truly live, he is willing to die.' When I first climbed Mount Everest, I shared a tent with a French snowboarder called Marco Siffredi, who was the first person in the world to snowboard down from the summit.

However, he was later criticized for "getting a Sherpa to carry him on his snowboard," and the following year he disappeared while skiing down a different route alone. Their attempt may not have been of any use to society. Some people say, "So what?" He snowboarded down from the top of Everest. But they truly wanted to live. Rather than live like they were dead, they would accept death in order to live, and I have the utmost respect for them."

For Ishikawa, being an "adventurer" is the ultimate expression of pure amateurism, not a profession. And it is because he has seen the adventures of his predecessors that he has embarked on his own adventures. He has continued to visit the Himalayan mountains for over 10 years because "a new generation of Sherpas has emerged and is continuing to engage in cutting-edge mountaineering. I had a strong desire to witness them as they pave the way for a new era."

For a long time, the existence of Sherpas, who support summit climbers, has been hidden in the shadows of mountaineering history. While the spotlight has always been on foreign climbers, I am running alongside a new generation of Sherpas. Is there any photographer who has conquered an 8,000m peak for such an act? I go where no path leads to see with my own eyes. The adventurer's journey continues.