Mount Fuji: A Cultural History of Belief and Representation

2019/07/18

In 2007, Keio University concluded a partnership agreement with Fujiyoshida City regarding town revitalization, and Naoto Nakajima, then Associate Professor of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at this Juku, played a central role. Partly because of this, in the October 2013 issue of this magazine's "San-nin Kandan" (Three-Person Chat) shortly after Mount Fuji became a World Heritage site, I joined him and Professor Kinji Akashi of the Faculty of Law, who is from Mishima City, to discuss these activities of the Juku and the history and culture of Mount Fuji. At that time, we discussed the original version of this book, which was the result of joint research I conducted from 1988 to 1989 with H. Byron Earhart, Professor Emeritus of Western Michigan University (and a Visiting Professor at this Juku during that period), under the theme of "Mount Fuji as Japanese Identity." He published it to assist in the efforts to register Mount Fuji as a World Heritage site. It happened that Takuya Inoue, a curator at the Mt. Fuji Kaguya-hime Museum who had been gifted the original book at the time of its publication, had translated it on his own. I then consulted with Keio University Press, and it was published with some additions and corrections by me in the form of an explanatory commentary.

Initially, the eruptions of Mount Fuji were feared, but later it was praised in the poems of the Man'yoshu and worshipped as the home of the deity Princess Kaguya from The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. In the medieval period, with the legend of the ascetic practices of En no Gyoja, it became a mountain of Shugendo centered around Fuji Murayama. In the early modern period, Fuji-ko spread through the work of the Oshi of Yoshida, and Fuji-ko groups were formed in various regions. Furthermore, its beautiful mountain form became a source of art, such as Hokusai's ukiyo-e, and was exported, bringing Japonism to Europe.

In the modern era, Fuji was promoted as the best mountain in Japan, and "Kyodo Fuji" (local Fujis) resembling the shape of Mount Fuji were born both at home and abroad. It was also used as a symbol of Japan on stamps and banknotes. During the Pacific War, it was used by both Japan and the United States to boost morale. After the war, many companies used it in their names as a symbol of peace and prosperity. For the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, a coin was made with the Olympic rings on the front and Mount Fuji on the back, and for the 10th anniversary of the Heisei Emperor's enthronement, a coin was minted with Fuji placed above the chrysanthemum emblem. This book also describes the past and present of Fuji-ko, Maruyama-kyo, and the Fuji beliefs of new religions.

Next March, an international symposium related to Mount Fuji is planned at the Mt. Fuji World Heritage Centre, Shizuoka in Fujinomiya City, inviting Mr. H. Byron Earhart, and in September, the Japanese Association for the Study of Shugendo will be held in Fuji City.

Mount Fuji: A Cultural History of Belief and Representation

H. Byron Earhart (Author), Hitoshi Miyake (Supervising Translator)

Keio University Press

376 pages, 4,500 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.