Mount Fuji

History Of MOUNT FUJI

It is thought that the first ascent was in 663 by an anonymous monk. The summit has been thought of as sacred since ancient times and was forbidden to women until the Meiji Era.

The first ascent by a foreigner was by Sir Rutherford Alcock in September 1860, from the foot of the mountain to the top in eight hours and three hours for the descent.[16] Alcock's brief narrative in The Capital of the Tycoon was the first widely disseminated description of the mountain in the West. Lady Fanny Parkes, the wife of British ambassador Sir Harry Parkes, was the first non-Japanese woman to ascend Mount Fuji in 1867; and photographer Felix Beato climbed Mount Fuji in that same year.

Today, Mount Fuji is an international tourist destination and common destination for mountain-climbing. In the early 20th century, populist educator Frederick Starr's Chautauqua lectures about his several ascents of Mount Fuji --1913, 1919, and 1923 -- were widely known in America. A well-known Japanese saying suggests that anybody would be a fool not to climb Mt. Fuji once--but a fool to do so twice.

Mount Fuji is an attractive volcanic cone and a frequent subject of Japanese art. Amongst the most renowned works are Hokusai's 36 Views of Mount Fuji and his One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji. The mountain is also mentioned in Japanese literature throughout the ages and the subject of many poems.

Mt. Fuji also houses a warrior tradition: ancient samurai used the base of the mountain as a remote training area, near the present day town of Gotemba. The shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo held yabusame in the area in the early Kamakura period. As of 2006, the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the United States Marine Corps operate military bases near Mount Fuji.