[Mt.Fuji] Life Dedicated to the Mountain

Mt.Fuji■Life Dedicated to the Mountain

About this mountain a sacred dream, a dream to be accomplished whatever the cost.

Mt. Fuji and Spiritual Power
A special group of men both guided visitors to the top of Mt. Fuji and carried their baggage. At one time there were many of these mountain carrier-guides, who would fasten as much as even a hundred kilograms of weight to a special frame and tote it up to the peak. It was these carriers who took supplies up the Gotemba Trail to the peak for staff who would conduct observations through the winter at the Mt. Fuji Weather Station. When a radar dome was built at the station, they carried heavy building materials, and their contribution to the weather station remains the stuff of legend. Mt. Fuji in winter is subject to powerful gusts of wind, making this work very dangerous. There are also the carriers on the Yoshida Trail, where most of the ‘congregation’ groups of believers ascend, and the ‘shrine carriers’ on the Fujinomiya Trail, who specialize in items and supplies for the shrines on the mountain top. Now that roads lead to the top, these bearers have disappeared, but the air of Mt. Fuji still whispers of these special people who loved the mountain, and dedicated their lives to it.