Hodaka

From Nisfai in the west to Oku in the north-east, the Hodaka was a series of razor-thin, serpentine ridges between deep, black ravines crusted with ice and hoar-frost over lime-impregnated granite.

The White Ninja

In retrospect, it seemed clear that Kansatsu, in select-ing the Hodaka as the site of Nicholas's graduation from the ryu, had meant to drive out of the boy all thought, conscious and unconscious, of his obsessive rivalry with Saigo.

The White Ninja

It had been the coldest winter in twenty years when Kansatsu took Nicholas north-east into the Hodaka.

The White Ninja

He had been certain that he would never again set foot otpon the Hodaka.

The White Ninja

And yet, within the community of professional mountaineers, there continued to be a fascination with the Hodaka and, in particular, with the Devil's Graveyard.

The White Ninja

The massif of the Hodaka was perhaps the most perilous area ia all of Japan.

The White Ninja

From that raging inferno the Hodaka had emerged to be weathered by wind and snow and ice.

The White Ninja

Nicholas, why I am here in the Hodaka, and this is my answer.

The White Ninja

It would be so easy to sleep now, encysted in the bosom of the storm, curled upon the Hodaka, ancient of the earth, to sleep the eternal sleep, and in such sleep an end to fear, to struggle, to Shiro Ninja.

The White Ninja

He clung to the side of the Hodaka, at the foot of the malevolent wall of the Black Gendarme, as insignificant as an insect upon an elephant's back.

The White Ninja