富士詣で

About this photo

This photograph shows a Fuji pilgrimage, people climbing Mount Fuji to worship. It appears in the second volume of Nihon Hyakkei (One Hundred Views of Japan), published in 1896 (Meiji 29) by the photographer Ogawa Kazumasa. The title does not tell us which trail it was taken on.

Mount Fuji has long been a sacred mountain. In the Edo period, Fujiko, groups of people who revered Mount Fuji, spread widely, centered on Edo. The movement was begun by Hasegawa Kakugyo, who practiced his austerities from the Warring States period into the early Edo period. Later Jikigyo Miroku spread its teachings, and it became so popular that people spoke of "808 groups for Edo's 808 neighborhoods." In Yoshida, at the northern entrance to the mountain, the houses of oshi, who lodged the pilgrims and looked after their worship, lined the streets. Women were forbidden to climb the mountain until 1872 (Meiji 5).

In 2013, Mount Fuji was added to the World Heritage List as "Fujisan, sacred place and source of artistic inspiration." Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Shrine and houses where oshi once lived are among its component sites.

Glossary