Mount Fuji and the Chureito Pagoda
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About Mount Fuji and the Chureito Pagoda

Mount Fuji is Japan’s highest mountain at 3,776 metres, a near-symmetrical volcanic cone on the border of Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures, about 100 km south-west of Tokyo. It is an active volcano, though it has been quiet since its last eruption in 1707, which covered Edo, as Tokyo was then called, in ash.

For centuries Fuji has been a sacred mountain, home to Shinto shrines and a goal for pilgrims who climbed it on foot. It is also one of the great subjects of Japanese art, above all in Hokusai’s print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. In 2013 UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site for its role as a sacred place and a source of artistic inspiration. Today the summit trails are open to climbers in the summer months.

The Chureito Pagoda stands on the hillside of Arakurayama above the town of Fujiyoshida, on the north side of the mountain. It is a five-storey pagoda built in 1963 as a memorial to peace and to the people of the town who died in war, and belongs to the Arakura Fuji Sengen Shrine. Visitors reach it by climbing almost 400 steps through the woods.

From the terrace behind the pagoda you get the view that appears on countless posters: the vermilion pagoda in front, Fuji filling the sky behind it, and in spring the cherry trees of the park in full bloom around it.

The diorama

The diorama recreates that postcard view on a floating island. The vermilion pagoda stands on a stone terrace on a raised hill, with five eaves that curl up at the corners, wind bells, balconies and the spire of rings on top. Stone steps lined with lanterns run down the hill to a red torii, cherry trees in full bloom ring the terrace, and petals drift down through the whole reel.

Fuji fills the back half of the island, shrunk to toy scale and steepened a little, as a telephoto lens makes it look, with blue-grey and purple slopes, a forest skirt and a snow cap with a jagged, gullied lower edge. In front lies the town of Shimoyoshida with tiled roofs, utility poles and glowing vending machines, and a Fujikyu train pulls in at the station. At night the lanterns come on, the pagoda is floodlit, the cherry trees are lit up and the snow glows under the moon.

Things to spot

• Photographers on the terrace, all pointing at Fuji
• The Fujikyu train stopping at Shimoyoshida station
• Cherry petals falling all through the reel
• Glowing vending machines by the streets
• The red torii at the foot of the steps
• Wisps of cloud round the mountain

What we simplified

• Fuji’s summit is about 17 km from the pagoda and around 40 km across at its base; here it is shrunk and moved right behind the hill.
• The town, the station and the streets are typical of Shimoyoshida rather than a copy of the real layout.