Mount Fuji

H. Byron Earhart

Description

Illustrated with color and black-and-white images of the mountain and its associated religious practices, H. Byron Earhart's study utilizes his decades of fieldwork—including climbing Fuji with three pilgrimage groups—and his research into Japanese and Western sources to offer a comprehensive overview of the evolving imagery of Mount Fuji from ancient times to the present day. Included in the book is a link to his twenty-eight minute streaming video documentary of Fuji pilgrimage and practice, Fuji: Sacred Mountain of Japan.

Beginning with early reflections on the beauty and power associated with the mountain in medieval Japanese literature, Earhart examines how these qualities fostered spiritual practices such as Shugendo, which established rituals and a temple complex at the mountain as a portal to an ascetic otherworld. As a focus of worship, the mountain became a source of spiritual insight, rebirth, and prophecy through the practitioners Kakugyo and Jikigyo, whose teachings led to social movements such as Fujido (the way of Fuji) and to a variety of pilgrimage confraternities making images and replicas of the mountain for use in local rituals.

Earhart shows how the seventeenth-century commodification of Mount Fuji inspired powerful interpretive renderings of the "peerless" mountain of Japan, such as those of the nineteenth-century print masters Hiroshige and Hokusai, which were largely responsible for creating the international reputation of Mount Fuji. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, images of Fuji served as an expression of a unique and superior Japanese culture. With its distinctive shape firmly embedded in Japanese culture but its ethical, ritual, and spiritual associations made malleable over time, Mount Fuji came to symbolize ultranationalistic ambitions in the 1930s and early 1940s, peacetime democracy as early as 1946, and a host of artistic, naturalistic, and commercial causes, even the exotic and erotic, in the decades since.

Sujets

• Comparative Religion
• Philosophie et théologie
• Clan Fujiwara
• Utagawa Hiroshige
• Honji suijaku
• East Asian religions
• Hideo
• Yokoyama Taikan
• Mount Takao
• Shikoku Pilgrimage
• Japan Foundation
• Mount Tsukuba
• Mount Hiei
• Shingon Buddhism
• Tenrikyo
• Mount Fuji
• Eastern
• Religion
• Kirishitan
• Osamu Dazai
• Tenriky?
• Yamabushi
• Fujiwara
• Utamaro
• Nichiren
• Hiroshige

Informations

• Publié par: University of South Carolina Press
• Date de parution: 15 juillet 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781611171112
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

2011 University of South Carolina
Cloth edition published by the University of South Carolina Press, 2011
Ebook edition published in Columbia, South Carolina,
by the University of South Carolina Press, 2015
www.sc.edu/uscpress
24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The Library of Congress has cataloged the cloth edition as follows:
Earhart, H. Byron. Mount Fuji : icon of Japan / H. Byron Earhart.
p. cm.- (Studies in comparative religion)
Includes bibliographical references.
Summary: A survey of the symbolism-religious, aesthetic,
and cultural-of Japan s Mount Fuji. -Publisher s description.
ISBN 978-1-61117-000-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Fuji, Mount (Japan) 2. Mountain worship-Japan-Fuji, Mount.
I. Title. II. Series: Studies in comparative religion (Columbia, S.C.)
BL2211.M6E23 2011
299.5 61350952166-dc22
2011012498
ISBN 978-1-61117-111-2 (ebook)
This book is dedicated to the majestic form of Fuji and to the spirit of all who have climbed it or who have admired it from afar.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Series Editor s Preface
Acknowledgments
Preface: Invitation to Fuji
A Note on Japanese Names and Terms and on Citations
PART 1 The Power and Beauty of a Mountain
1 The Power of the Volcano: Fire and Water
The Story of a Mountain: Natural and Cultural
From Volcano to Sacred Mountain
2 The Beauty of the Ideal Mountain: Early Poetry and Painting
Fuji in Early Writing
Fuji in Classical Painting
3 Asceticism: Opening the Mountain
Fuji Pioneers: En no Gy ja and Matsudai Sh nin
Shugend : Fuji as an Ascetic Otherworld
PART 2 The Dynamics of a Cosmic Mountain
4 The Mountain Becomes the World
Kakugy : Rebirth from Fuji
Minuki : Fuji as a Mountain Mandala
5 Touchstone of Ethical Life
Jikigy Miroku: From Oil Merchant to Religious Reformer
Fasting to Death on Fuji and Transformation of Society
6 Cosmic Model and World Renewal
Fujid : Fuji as a Cosmic Mountain
Furikawari : The Way of Fuji as the Revolution of Society
7 Pilgrimage Confraternities: People Come to the Mountain
The Eight Hundred and Eight Fujik
Fujik : Pilgrimage to the Mountain
8 Miniature Fuji: The Mountain Comes to the People
Fujik : Enshrining the Mountain
Fujizuka : Creating Miniature Fuji
PART 3 Fuji as Visual Ideal and Political Idea
9 Woodblock Prints and Popular Arts
Ukiyo-e: Fuji in the Floating World of Japan
Ukiyo-e: Fuji in the Floating World of Hiroshige and Hokusai
Fuji as Decoration and Souvenir
10 Western Discovery of Woodblock Prints
Ukiyo-e: Fuji in the Floating World of Japonisme
Japonaiserie Forever
Japanese Rediscovery of Woodblock Prints
11 The Enduring Image of Fuji in Modern Times
Giving Form to Japan s Identity: Fuji and the Ideology of Nationalism
Framing Japan s Identity: Money and Postage Stamps
PART 4 Fuji Devotion in Contemporary Japan
12 A Contemporary Fujik
The Decline of Fujik in Modern Times
Miyamotok : Edo Customs in Tokyo
13 New Religions and Fuji
Maruyamaky : The Crater of Fuji as a Mecca
Gedatsukai: Old Traditions in a New Religion
14 Surveying Contemporary Fuji Belief and Practice
Statistics and Personal Statements on Fuji Spirituality
Three Views of Fuji
PART 5 Fuji the Flexible Symbol
15 War and Peace
The Mobilization of Fuji
Fuji as the Emblem of Peace
16 The Future of an Icon
Stereotype and Commercial Logo, Erotica and Exotica
Secular Image and Patriotic Mantra
Epilogue: Descent from the Mountain
Appendix: Sino-Japanese Characters
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ILLUSTRATIONS
COLOR PLATES
1. A Shower below the Summit ( Sanka hakuu ), by Katsushika Hokusai
2. En no Gy ja. Polychromed wood statue
3. Fuji Pilgrimage Mandala ( Fuji sankei mandara ), attributed to Kan Motonobu or his workshop
4. Cave Tour in Mt. Fuji ( Fujisan Tainaimeguri no zu ), by Utagawa (Gountei) Sadahide
5. New Fuji, Meguro ( Meguro shin Fuji ), by Utagawa (Ando) Hiroshige
6. Suruga Street ( Suruga-ch ), by Utagawa (And ) Hiroshige
7. Campaign coat ( jinbaori )
8. Fuji in American propaganda leaflet
9. Mt. Fuji from Shunsh Kashiwara ( Shunsh Kashiwara Fuji zu ), by Shiba K kan
10. Picture of the Korean Embassy ( Ch senjin raich zu ), by Hanegawa T ei
11. Foreigner and Chinese Viewing Mt. Fuji ( Nihon meizan no Fuji ), by Ikk sai Yoshimori
BLACK-AND-WHITE FIGURES
Mt. Fuji and Seiken Temple , attributed to Sessh T y
Weighing of karma ( g no hakari )
Minuki , or cosmic diagram
Pilgrimage dress
Premodern climbing routes for Fuji
Membership card for the Soci t du Jing-lar
Fujisan Fumoto (At the Foot of Mount Fuji)
SERIES EDITOR S PREFACE
H. Byron Earhart, the author of this comprehensive study of Mount Fuji as a national sacred symbol, is a distinguished scholar of comparative religion with a focus on Japanese religion. The book is based on his deep knowledge of many textual and artistic sources as well as extensive field study on and around the great volcanic peak itself. The central focus in this study is Fuji s role as a symbol of religious belief and practice. He goes on to remark, in his preface, that some literary, artistic, social, and even political and economic factors must be drawn upon to contextualize this picture of Fuji as a religious symbol; indeed this overview of Fuji through time could hardly be considered without some such delimitation.
This series has published many excellent books over its twenty-six-year history. All of them have been scholarly works that have made significant contributions to their specialized fields within the broad borders of comparative religion. Some have also appealed to a wider reading public beyond academe. I expect that this book will be eagerly read and assigned by scholars in the humanities, arts, and social sciences. But I am confident that it will also appeal to a wide range of readers in Japan as well as globally because of Mount Fuji s great symbolic power and beauty as both a national and world treasure.
FREDERICK M. DENNY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Those who make ascents of the loftiest peaks, such as Everest, give credit to the guides and others without whose assistance they could not have achieved their goals. My trips up Mount Fuji, less than half the altitude of the Himalayan heights, required no mountaineering experts and special equipment. Even so, traversing the territory of this mountain s conceptual imagery was quite complex, made possible only by people and institutions whose help is gladly acknowledged here.
Western Michigan University granted me a sabbatical for the 1988-89 year, providing the time to travel to Japan and carry out the research for this study. This work was supported in part by grants from Western Michigan University s Faculty Research Fund. George Dennison, then provost at Western Michigan University, kindly provided a provost s research grant to support the conversion of raw video footage into the documentary Fuji: Sacred Mountain of Japan. The library resources and staff at Western Michigan University, Keio University, and the University of California at San Diego helped in the background research for this study. A Japan Foundation grant for 1988-89 gave financial support during this time. Rissh K seikai kindly offered an apartment in Tokyo, enabling my wife and me to live close to universities and within easy reach of Fuji.
Professor Miyake Hitoshi sponsored my affiliation with Keio University, which afforded access to an office and a library. Professor Miyake also discussed the project with me and helped plan the research. He accompanied me on one trip to the mountain with his graduate students; on another occasion his wife drove us to the mountain. Miyata Noboru, Hirano Eiji, and Murakami Shigeyoshi were the major scholars in Japan who gave freely of their knowledge, advice, and contacts to carry out the fieldwork and research.
The leaders and members of three religious groups -Miyamotok , Maruyamaky , and J shichiyak -extended considerable hospitality in allowing me to accompany them on pilgrimages to Fuji and observe them in meetings. They also allowed the distribution of a questionnaire and answered many requests for information and explanations.
So many people aided in this research that it is not possible to mention all of them here; some are credited within the text. One blanket thanks offered here is to all the scholars who in their research monographs and articles have provided the bits and pieces enabling the creation of the mosaic of Fuji s imagery that is the purpose of this book; brief mentions in notes hardly account for their valuable contributions.
A fringe benefit of other publishing projects is the help provided by Mike Sirota. I wish to thank him for that assistance.
Special thanks also go to Frederick M. Denny, the series editor, and to Jim Denton and Karen Beidel of the University of South Carolina Press for their invaluable assistance in the publication of this work. Brandi Lariscy Avant was responsible for the design of the book. Careful copyediting was provided by Pat Coate. Readers who noted mistakes and gave freely of advice to improve the manuscript include Andrew Bernstein and anonymous reviewers. Harry H. Vanderstappen read an early draft of the book and suggested the rubric of icon for Fuji. My son David C. Earhart not only read various versions of th