FUJI

A biography of a mountain.

Bernstein, a professor of history at Lewis & Clark College and author of Modern Passings; Death Rites, Politics, and Social Change in Imperial Japan, occasionally steps back to deliver the big picture, but this is overwhelmingly the history of a volcano. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013, Fuji is depicted as peaceful and timeless. “It is one of Japan’s most prominent symbols of national unity, yet its history is full of economic, political, and ideological conflict.” While this is accurate, those unfamiliar with Japanese history would do well to brush up because Bernstein keeps his focus on the mountain; religion, art, and poetry take precedence over politics, and readers may be daunted by a stream of unfamiliar names. The current Fuji took shape around 17,000 years ago. Thus it did not precede humans but grew up among them. It erupted now and then, disastrously in 1707, but has gone quiet for the past few hundred years. From prehistory, humans settled nearby and grew crops—especially tea and mulberry trees for silk—that thrived on the volcanic soil. The volcano’s beauty as well as its behavior attracted attention both mystical and literary. An 18th-century mystic who starved himself to death on Fuji gave rise to a cult, “Fujiko,” devoted to its worship that included a pilgrimage to the summit, which in turn gave rise to a major local industry. Fujiko adopted many Buddhist practices and competed with the more nationalistic Shinto movement. Much of the book details the legal, doctrinal, and organizational quarrels between the three religions. Fujiko did not do well and is now a fringe movement, but almost all religious ceremonies surrounding Fuji evaporated after World War II. The mountain is now a major tourist attraction, fueling quarrels over trash, sanitation, crowds, and the deteriorating environment.

An encyclopedic analysis of a national icon.