50 Fun Facts About Mount Fuji

On which Japanese island does Mount Fuji stand?

It lies about 100 km southwest of Tokyo and is visible from the capital on clear days.

What is the summit elevation of Mount Fuji?

It is Japan's highest mountain and the seventh-highest island peak on Earth.

What type of volcano is Mount Fuji?

Its exceptionally symmetrical cone is snow-covered about five months a year.

When did Mount Fuji last erupt?

The Hōei eruption created a new crater and a second peak, Mount Hōei, halfway down the southeast flank.

Fuji is one of Japan's 'Three Holy Mountains' - which two peaks complete the trio?

It is also a Special Place of Scenic Beauty and a Historic Site.

In which year was Mount Fuji added to the UNESCO World Heritage List as a Cultural Site?

UNESCO recognises 25 sites of cultural interest in the Fuji locality, including the Fujisan Hongū Sengen Taisha shrine.

What do the two kanji in the standard spelling of 'Fuji' mean?

The kanji were applied by sound long after the name existed; its true origin is still debated.

Japanese speakers say 'Fuji-san' - what does the 'san' signify?

Older poetic names include Fugaku and Fuyō-hō, the Lotus Peak.

Which 9th-century text links the name Fuji to the word for 'immortal'?

In the tale a goddess deposits the elixir of life on the peak, a tradition behind Hokusai's obsession with the mountain.

Who was the first woman on record to summit Mount Fuji, in 1832?

Women were formally barred until an 1872 government edict abolished female exclusion from sacred sites.

Which British diplomat made the first foreign ascent of Mount Fuji in September 1860?

He climbed in 8 hours and descended in 3; his account in The Capital of the Tycoon introduced the mountain to Western readers.

Which US peak became Fuji's 'sister mountain' in 1936, nicknamed 'Tacoma-Fuji' by Japanese immigrants?

Mount St. Helens, before its 1980 eruption, was separately known as 'The Fuji of America'.

What caused BOAC Flight 911 to break up near Mount Fuji in March 1966, killing all 124 aboard?

A memorial to the victims stands near the Gotemba New Fifth Station.

According to a Japanese saying, what sort of person climbs Mount Fuji twice?

A wise person, it says, climbs it once in a lifetime.

Which car brand's logo was inspired by Mount Fuji?

The mountain has also appeared in countless films and even lends its name to a sign in medicine.

For how many years had the staffed weather station on Fuji's summit operated when it closed in 2004?

At 3,780 m it was Japan's highest station and tracked typhoons by radar; an automated system replaced it.

Mount Fuji straddles the boundary of which two prefectures?

Gotemba, Fujiyoshida, Fujinomiya and Fuji are the four small cities around it.

Which lakes make up the group at the mountain's northern base?

They were created by earlier eruptions; the area's main city Fujiyoshida is famous for udon noodles.

What is the lowest temperature ever recorded on Fuji's summit, in February 1981?

The summit has a tundra climate; the record high is 17.8 °C from August 1942.

In 2024 Fuji's seasonal snowcap formed on 6 November - why was that notable?

The average first-snowcap date is 2 October.

Mount Fuji sits at a triple junction of which three tectonic plates?

The Pacific Plate subducts beneath them, driving the volcanism.

How wide is Fuji's main summit crater?

It is 240 m deep, and the upper slopes sit at 31-35 degrees, the angle of repose for dry gravel.

Scientists identify how many distinct phases of volcanic activity in the formation of Mount Fuji?

Sen-komitake, Komitake Fuji, Old Fuji and the New Fuji formed around 10,000 years ago.

Roughly how many parasitic cinder cones are aligned through Fuji's summit?

The largest is Omuro-Yama; the mountain also has more than 70 lava tunnels.

How much volcanic ash did the 1707 Hōei eruption release, reaching Edo 100 km away?

It produced no lava flow but caused landslides and starvation across the region.

Which two seismic events are thought to have triggered the Hōei eruption?

The Hōei quake was a magnitude 8-plus event just weeks before the eruption began.

In 2012, models put Fuji's magma chamber pressure how much above pre-1707 levels?

With no way to measure the chamber directly, the estimate remained speculative.

Aokigahara forest, at Fuji's northwest base, grows on lava from an eruption in which year?

Known as the Sea of Trees, it covers 30 square kilometres of hardened lava.

Why can navigation needles behave oddly in Aokigahara?

The effect varies with the rock's iron content and only occurs with the compass directly on the lava.

Roughly how many people climbed Mount Fuji in 2009?

July and August are the main season, when huts operate and buses run to the trailheads.

What is the Japanese term for the sunrise that most climbers aim to see from near the summit?

It means 'arrival of light'; most Japanese climb at night to be in position.

What are the four major climbing routes to Fuji's summit?

Each has numbered stations; climbers usually start at the fifth, reachable by road, and the summit is the tenth.

Which numbered station is the summit on each of Fuji's climbing trails?

The Fujinomiya route has the highest fifth station; the Yoshida route is the most popular.

Which trail, starting from the north, is the most popular climbing route with the most huts?

Gotemba has the fewest huts and its ash-covered path is favoured for the descent.

What is the name of the highest point in Japan, one of eight peaks around Fuji's crater?

The Mount Fuji Radar System stood there until an automated replacement in 2008.

Why is camping illegal above the fifth station on Mount Fuji?

Fuji is part of Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park.

What fee did Yamanashi prefecture impose on hikers using its main trail from the 2024 season?

A daily cap of 4,000 hikers and an overnight closure from 4 pm to 3 am followed.

Which goddess, wife of Ninigi, is the deity of Mount Fuji according to the Nihon Shoki?

The Fujisan Hongū Sengen Taisha shrine is dedicated to her.

Which syncretic religion of mountain worship and Buddhism used Fuji as a base in the Heian period?

By the early 12th century Matsudai Shonin had founded a temple on the summit.

Who founded Fuji-kō, the Edo-period cult that venerated the mountain as a female deity?

Climbers would be reborn 'purified and able to find happiness'; the cult was later absorbed into Shinto sects.

Which ukiyo-e artist created the print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji around 1830-32?

He was in his seventies; the series' success led to ten more prints being added.

What is the most famous single print in Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji?

Hokusai used the newly imported Prussian blue pigment throughout the series.

Which European pigment, newly arrived in Japan, did the artist of the Thirty-six Views use extensively?

His use helped make it popular in Japan.

Which New Zealand mountain has stood in for Mount Fuji on screen because of its resemblance?

Mount St. Helens was called 'The Fuji of America' before 1980.

Which shōgun held yabusame mounted-archery contests at the foot of Fuji in the early Kamakura period?

Samurai used the base near present-day Gotemba as a training ground.

In which year did a Japanese government edict formally end the exclusion of women from Mount Fuji?

Grand Council of State Edict 98 abolished female exclusion on shrine and temple lands, four decades after Tatsu Takayama's pioneering 1832 climb.

Near which present-day town did ancient samurai use the base of Fuji as a remote training area?

Gotemba lies to the east of the mountain, one of four small cities that ring it along with Fujiyoshida, Fujinomiya and Fuji.

About how many years ago did the lava flow that formed 'new Fuji', the mountain's main body, erupt?

Some 2,500 to 2,800 years ago the top of ancient Fuji collapsed, leaving only the summit of Shin-Fuji standing.

Roughly how far is Mount Fuji from Tokyo, from which it is visible on clear days?

Edo's Tōkaidō road travellers saw the mountain constantly after 1600, which helped make it a favourite subject of Japanese art.

In which year did Mt. Fuji Shizuoka Airport, the closest with international service, open?

It lies about 80 km from the mountain; Haneda and Narita are roughly three hours and fifteen minutes away.