Why is "Encouragement of Climb" written in katakana instead of hiragana?


I'm just a beginner in Japanese, but I know the difference between the use of
katakana and hiragana in sentences. Katakana is used for transliteration of
foreign words, onomatopoeia, technical or scientific terms, or from
emphasizing words, but why is "Encouragement of Climb" written as ヤマノススメ and
not やまのすすめ? It didn't pass any criteria for it to be written in katakana.




There are a number of stylistic or aesthetic reasons to do so. Sometimes
katakana is used for a native Japanese word because of the katakana's
"international", "modern" or "high-tech" feeling:

  * [Why is Toyota typically written in Katakana? (トヨタ)](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/31078/5010)
  * [ニッポン? Why Kana?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/17799/5010)

However, katakana is also associated with oldness and tradition because it was
the standard script in formal or academic documents in the Meiji era:

  * [Why is this written in katakana instead of hiragana?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/50317/5010)
  * [Orthography at the turn of the previous century](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/14848/5010)

(This may seem contradictory, but in reality, other design choices such as
fonts also matter.)

In this specific case, I think the latter image is more relevant. This book
title is a parody of
[学問のすすめ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukuzawa_Yukichi#An_Encouragement_of_Learning),
a very famous book written 150 years ago, and one of the earlier copies _was_
full of katakana, [like this](https://i.stack.imgur.com/bhUo0m.png). By using
katakana, the author is signaling that this ヤマノススメ is like a climbing version
of the nationally famous classic.

Also related:

  * [Why are katakana preferred over hiragana or kanji sometimes?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/1930/5010)




There are a number of stylistic or aesthetic reasons to do so. Sometimes
katakana is used for a native Japanese word because of the katakana's
"international", "modern" or "high-tech" feeling:

  * [Why is Toyota typically written in Katakana? (トヨタ)](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/31078/5010)
  * [ニッポン? Why Kana?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/17799/5010)

However, katakana is also associated with oldness and tradition because it was
the standard script in formal or academic documents in the Meiji era:

  * [Why is this written in katakana instead of hiragana?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/50317/5010)
  * [Orthography at the turn of the previous century](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/14848/5010)

(This may seem contradictory, but in reality, other design choices such as
fonts also matter.)

In this specific case, I think the latter image is more relevant. This book
title is a parody of
[学問のすすめ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukuzawa_Yukichi#An_Encouragement_of_Learning),
a very famous book written 150 years ago, and one of the earlier copies _was_
full of katakana, [like this](https://i.stack.imgur.com/bhUo0m.png). By using
katakana, the author is signaling that this ヤマノススメ is like a climbing version
of the nationally famous classic.

Also related:

  * [Why are katakana preferred over hiragana or kanji sometimes?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/1930/5010)

