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Fuji-Hakone-Izu NP, Yamanashi / Shizuoka
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In 864, lava from Mount Fuji’s Jōgan eruption flowed into the ancient lake Senoumi, dividing it into today’s Lake Sai and Lake Shōji. The same eruption’s lava now lies beneath the Aokigahara forest.
Mount Fuji’s last recorded eruption began on December 16, 1707, and continued intermittently for 16 days. Winds carried its ash as far as Edo, today’s Tokyo; Kawasaki, closer to the mountain, received about 5 cm.
Mount Fuji did not grow from a blank slate: the present volcano formed over the older Ko-Fuji and Komitake volcanoes. Its graceful, single peak hides a much longer, layered volcanic story.
A record kept by a Fujikō group says that worshipper Tatsu Takayama reached Fuji’s summit in 1832, while women were barred from climbing above designated points. The general ban was lifted in 1872.
The World Heritage listing has 25 component sites, not just Fuji’s summit: it also includes shrines, pilgrimage lodgings, lakes, springs, waterfalls and other places tied to worship of the mountain and its artistic influence.
Fuji’s summit has 8 peaks around its crater, once compared to the petals of a Buddhist lotus seat. The traditional circuit, called ohachimeguri, was a pilgrimage route; many summit place-names later changed during the Meiji-era separation of Buddhism and Shinto.
The Fuji on Japan’s former ¥1,000 and ¥5,000 notes was based on photographer Kōyō Okada’s 1935 photograph “Lakefront in Spring,” taken beside Lake Motosu. The view can be seen from the lakeshore lookout.
For centuries, Fuji’s oshi guides did more than show the way: they arranged pilgrims’ lodging and meals, led prayers and taught the mountain’s faith. The preserved Old Togawa Residence in Fujiyoshida dates to 1768.
Rain and snow seep into Fuji’s volcanic layers, then travel underground for 10 to several tens of years before emerging at springs and waterfalls such as Oshino Hakkai and Shiraito Falls. That groundwater also supports local life and industry.
In 1964, a weather radar was built on Fuji’s summit to scan as far as 800 km and help track typhoons. Satellites eventually took over, and the radar stopped operating in 1999.
Fuji’s image inspired generations of artists, but Katsushika Hokusai’s “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji” had a particularly wide reach: UNESCO notes that the prints profoundly influenced Western art in the 19th century.
In 1800, a special year in the Fuji pilgrimage calendar, 23,700 worshippers reportedly used the Suyama route. That remarkable crowd came long before modern recreational climbing became common.
